The Railways End
by Red Star
Summary: Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all." Crossover with Sandman. (Formerly known as The Second Vortex)
1. Prologue

THE RAILWAYS END-PROLOGUE

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't own the Sandman series or Neon Genesis Evangelion

_In which we must Face the past to see the Present,_

_In which the Present must be seen to know the Future,_

_And in which we begin our journey into the Future_

The Kindly Ones had wreaked havoc upon the Dreaming. They had killed one of the Prince of Stories' most magnificent creations, leaving a wasteland behind. 

The Prince of Stories, known to all as Dream of the Endless—but also as Daniel, for sake of his predecessor having an alternate name as well—could not bring Fiddler's Green back. The jocular Britannic giant would never be seen again, except for brief glimpses in the Shifting Zones, where one could be lost for decades and have only been missing for five minutes or one could sit for five minutes and find himself in the next decade.

It was in this wasteland that Daniel stood, his white robes rippling about him. His face was neutral, his eyes full of the night sky.

"CRAWWWW!!"

Daniel looked up to see a black raven, caught in a violent swirl of wind, flapping his wings frantically. 

Around the neck of the Lord of Dreams hung a long chain of gold, at the end of which was a medium sized emerald. A star shined in his eye and his emerald glowed, and the wind blew the bird toward him. The long white arms caught the little bird and Daniel held the bird tightly as he returned to his observations.

"Thanks, kid. Damn, what a wind!"

"Indeed," Daniel agreed unenthusiastically, "You must take great care when flying around this region now, Matthew; after we have left you must go around to my other flying subjects and warn them away."

"Huh? Why?"

Daniel nodded toward the subject of his observation. Matthew's little black eyes widened as he saw what appeared to be a whirlpool on solid ground. Stirring within the mix were rocks and trees, roots and the bones of dream-animals; all being tossed about like in a blender.

"Oh my God, it's a…"

"Vortex, Matthew, and as you can see it has already grown to its smallest stage…and growing rapidly."

The bird looked at the edges and indeed saw that the Vortex was slowly growing, though at a snail's pace.

"Jesus," Matthew whispered, "When did it start?" 

"Two hours ago,"

"Huh? But this thing's the size of a kiddie pool!"

Daniel said nothing, merely staring out at the Vortex as it whirled and sucked, the winds tugging violently, insistently at his robes. With a snap of his cloak, Daniel jumped off the rock column he stood upon and began walking toward the palace.

"The rapid growth troubled me as well, Matthew; upon investigation I found that this current Vortex is…mentally unbalanced."

The bird's head snapped up and he looked into the Dream Lord's face.

"'Mentally unbalanced'? You mean he's _nuts?!"_

Daniel smiled slightly, and placed the raven on his shoulder as the vacuum-like wind faded away.

"No, Matthew; he is not insane, though he teeters on the brink of it. The slightest tip could send him into my youngest sister's arms. To put it better, he is under a great deal of emotional strain. To be specific, he suffers from what I believe is called the 'Hedgehog's Dilemma'."

"What?"

"A rather poetic affliction; the hedgehog wants to be closer to others, but every time he gets close he hurts the ones he loves."

"Oh," Matthew craned his neck to look at one of Mervyn's boys tramping over toward the shores with a large pepper grinder, "That's kind of sad."

"It is," agreed Daniel, "A most terrible existence. It speaks much of the boy that he has gone on this long."

Matthew shivered as he remembered, "Hey, will he have to…?"

Daniel sighed, and looked down as a three-inch purple ant in hippie garb wandered across his path.

"I…am afraid so, Matthew, unless Desire is playing it's tricks again—which I doubt it is—I will have to take…action."

And with that, the Onieromancer held up his hand, where a globe of pure white flame appeared. The flames parted to reveal a young man walking, dressed in school uniform, briefcase in hand. His sad deep-blue eyes revealed nothing as he stopped and looked up, puzzled, into the sky, as if he could sense the eye of the Third Eldest of the Endless. Presently, a red-haired girl appeared, yelling at him. The boy was startled out of his stare, and seemed to be apologizing to the girl. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him away. The vision followed for a while before the flames dissolved.

"Make your last days worthwhile, Shinji Ikari," said Daniel softly, "This is my responsibility, though it is distasteful."

*Special thanks to Lord Legato Deathscythe for helping me while I was trying to edit this prologue.


	2. Chapter One

THE RAILWAYS END-CHAPTER ONE

_In which a normal day in interrupted by a white stranger_

_Walls are broken down_

_Abel is disappointed_

_And a dream is broken_

Pain followed Shinji Ikari everywhere.

He rubbed his face, and muttered something private as he walked to the Geofront after Asuka. The latest in his string of injuries occurred after Asuka had stopped to look at a poster and Shinji—in a state of daydreaming—had bumped into her. She shrieked rape and smacked him silly. As always.

Suddenly, Asuka leaped aside, startled. Shinji stopped, looking down at where her attention was riveted. 

Little seeds littered the sidewalk, and pigeons fluttered down to peck at the ground. Shinji looked up and saw a guy with an unruly mop of white hair sitting on a bench facing into the park they were passing. The head turned, and Shinji found himself looking into a youthful, yet regal face that had skin like a Roman statue. The young man wore almost completely white, except for his trousers, which were khakis. 

The eyes were strangest of all, they were overshadowed and dark, he couldn't see what color they were.

The young man looked casually at Asuka, who was stamping over to him.

"Watch where you're throwing that stuff, dammit!"

The young man smiled slightly, a soothing expression, **"I apologize. I am feeding the pigeons, and throw some seed behind me every now and then to attract newcomers."**

Asuka raised an eyebrow as she approached the stranger.

"Why are you doing that? Pigeons are urban pests."

**"Because it gives me pleasure; is that not a sufficient reason?"**

Asuka snorted and turned away; Shinji approached and hesitated before the stranger.

"E-Excuse me,"

Those dark eyes turned toward the Third Child.

**"Yes?"**

"Have we met? You look familiar."

A small smile appeared on the pale face, **"We have, at night, and we shall meet again, though it may not be as…pleasant as before."**

Shinji opened his mouth to respond, but Asuka grabbed his wrist and towed him behind her as they hurried to the Geofront.

Daniel looked after them and turned back to the pigeons which had arrived at his feet. He took another handful of seed out of his bag and tossed the food to the crowd at his feet.

The three Children had their eyes closed in deep concentration. The synch test was going fairly well, and Ritsuko Akagi sat back while taking a sip of coffee, intending to relax during this session. The Angels had been absent for some time, and some spoke hopefully of the end of the war.

Dr. Akagi smirked at that thought. She had the ear of the commander, and she knew that the next Angel was coming. It would appear at the induction of the Fourth Child.

He would be hurt, of course, mutilated; possibly killed. But it was necessary sacrifice for the HCP's success. Nothing could stop it once Gendo had put his plans into motion.

And Dream of the Endless smirked at her arrogance, lightly amused by Ritsuko's assumption of the infallibility of the Commander of NERV. He clasped his white hands behind his back and walked, unseen, to the window through which he could observe the synch test.

The King of Dreams watched the tubes in the LCL and waited. The Children were on the borders between the Waking World and the Dreaming. All he had to do was wait and he could observe and see the power of this Vortex.

Misato Katsuragi frowned at the monitor before her and pressed the communications switch. "Hey, Shinji? Are you alright? Our sensors…"

But Shinji dreamed. 

The monitors went blank, and random code went racing across the screens.

"What the hell?!" 

Ritsuko leapt toward her computer console, her fingers frantically punching away at the keys. The techs were galvanized as well, and filled the room with shouting.

"Third Child's data isn't coming in!"

"Oh my God…Sempai, the Third Child is connecting with the other two children! Their brain waves are starting to synchronize!"

Misato was looking around in quiet terror. After a brief paralysis, she grabbed the phone on a nearby terminal.

"This is Major Katsuragi in testing facility three! We need a medical team here stat!"

The King of Dreams watched the chaos going on in the room. He also watched the Vortex as it broke through the barriers into Asuka and Rei's minds. Daniel stood at the back of the room, his arms crossed over his white T-shirt. His observation was proving much: such was the seriousness of Shinji Ikari's mental instability that the Vortex within was spreading violently; so violently that even these devices that surrounded him were affected. 

Very well, then.

Reality rippled, and Daniel was visible to these mortals who didn't even notice him, instead attending to their own duties.

**"Enough," he said, his attention riveted on Shinji's plug, ****"Dream no more," and Daniel was gone.**

Shinji awoke to find his plug being thrown open and questioning looks given him by a medical team.

Asuka was in a bad mood.

She was left with a crushing headache after the synch test, and the aspirin given to her by the NERV doctors was barely helping. The fact that Rei was suffering from a similar condition helped a bit, but not much. The only exception from this circle of suffering was the Third Child, who was calmly eating the food that he had prepared, since Misato was drunk off her ass again and Rei had come over for dinner. That Shinji had escaped the sudden affliction only irritated her somewhat more, somewhat because her mind was rational enough to realize that some things couldn't be his fault. 

As she shoveled more ramen into her mouth, she recalled the bizarre incident of that day. 

_Unity.___

That's what the voice had said, and then it had laughed joyfully, like a child that had met a new puppy.

_Wouldn't it be beautiful, Asuka? If everyone was united? If we had one dream?_

The laughter had come again. And she had felt her mind slipping outside, the thoughts and ambitions and fantasies going beyond it's borders like water over the edge of an overflowing glass. Asuka tried to struggle against it, but it…intoxicated her, dragging her into the…but she didn't know. All she could recall was the feeling of being caught and going in a circle, like that ride in Hameln which went round and round…

And then, somebody was there. He looked like a ghost and his eyes shined like stars when he looked at her and said, **"Go back. This is not your dream."**

After he had finished cleaning up, Shinji looked at the clock and groaned. He rubbed his hands against his eyes and stumbled toward his room, with every intention of falling onto his bed and going to sleep as speedily as possible.

For some reason, he had particularly enjoyed the day's synch test. It was like…walls falling…

_They're so fragile…what's beyond them…I can touch them…_

And Rei and Asuka were there…he didn't see them, but he knew they were there…

_Ayanami__…Asuka! You have to see this…feel it…I want to share it with you…_

And he said something to Asuka, and was about to speak to Rei when a voice pierced into his mind, gently ordering him to wake up.

He hoped he would have something like that to dream tonight.

Shinji had no idea…

After an hour of passion with the woman he had deemed worthy of substituting for his wife, Gendo rolled onto his side and stared at the glasses beside his bed, Ritsuko's hard breathing falling as the strains of that night's efforts evaporated. She lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling in contemplation.

And Gendo dreamed…

After scratching her inner thigh, Misato rolled onto her stomach, a foot kicking down a small pile of empty beer cans. She ignored it; assuming (in all likeliness correctly) that Shinji would casually pick up the trash while he was half asleep and heading for the shower.

Misato, in her inebriation, began to desire. She wanted someone next to her in bed, to show her expertise at the war of love. 

Kaji? No. Far away. She wanted someone now.

That left the only other attractive male she knew—Shinji.

He had to learn these things sometime, and she intended to be the first to show him, as she had been the first in a decade to show him real affection. He would be frightened, of course, at first and then he would adjust to this new form of love.

Yes, thought Misato as she rose from her bed on her hands, she would do it before the little red-headed Teutonic or the albino would; a treasure that would be hers to enjoy first.

Then she fell asleep.

And Misato dreamed…

Asuka didn't like her dreams.

They were, more often then not, the same: the vision of her mother, hanging by the rope as always.

She was an intelligent person; the result of the combination of two elite genes. Asuka could recognize trauma when she saw it, and she sometimes wondered why no one around her responded to these signs of distress. 

Shinji had seen it. Her face at night when the pride disappeared. He never said anything about it, though. As she lay beneath the blankets, she thought that, maybe Shinji was a good friend after all.

And Asuka dreamed…

Rei Ayanami had gotten thirsty, and was walking back to her bed after getting a drink of water. She stopped in front of the Commander's glasses on the dresser. She picked them up and regarded them calmly. 

Lately, her usually unfaltering loyalty to Gendo had begun to sway like wheat in the wind. The questioning had started after the arrival of Shinji.

The Commander had treated her well as long as she could remember, and she had become accustomed to a benevolent image of the senior Ikari. But when his son arrived, Rei was somewhat surprised to see how Gendo ignored his biological child. While he called Rei by name, he referred to Shinji coldly by the latter's title, "Pilot" or "Third Child". She didn't really understand why; Shinji was likeable enough, his shyness adding to his personal charm. He was honorable enough, accepting blame for the injuries of Touji's little sister. He took heaps of abuse from many around him and slipped into the role of housekeeper for his roommates. He was truly Rei's first friend besides the Commander.

But that didn't matter to Gendo. He coldly ordered his son about, ignored his injuries and protests, and sometimes used the boy's gentle nature as a weapon against him.

Rei pondered this as she covered her nude body with her blankets and laid her head on her pillow. Why would the Commander treat such a timid creature like his son in such a way? She would have to ask him tomorrow. He wouldn't lie to her, right?

Right?

And Rei dreamed…

The King of Dreams watched the Vortex shudder and expand as strands of dreams began to swirl into its dream-vacuum. His white hair danced over his face and eyes, yet he barely flinched from his observations. He clutched Matthew in his arms and the raven watched quietly as well while Dream stroked his head.

"Sure is getting big. Who else is in there?" asked Matthew.

**"His father, guardian, roommate, and friend; his expansion is reaching towards others of his association…"**

"Jeez, last one only…wait, father _and guardian? Who's he living with?"_

**"Major Misato Katsuragi. Gendo Ikari—his father—has abdicated his responsibility as a parent," Dream sneered a little, ****"Most disappointing, for such a supposedly strong man,"**

"A deadbeat dad, huh?" asked Matthew, "I met a few when I was alive; always trying to get out of giving their kids some money. They made me want to drink a lot,"

**"Indeed," Dream replied, ****"Shinji Ikari's life has been…difficult, to say the least. Hopefully, he will find rest tonight…"**

Gendo dreamed that he was young again, the age he was when Yui disappeared into Unit-01. And Yui was there…only her back was to him, and she was walking down a road away from him. A toddler Shinji clasped her right hand, and they were walking away from him. The road was lined with shadowy figures; he couldn't see their faces, but he felt they were watching him. He ran after them. He shouted for Yui.

"Wait! Yui!"

She only kept walking.

"Yui! Please, for God's sake!"

He ran and ran until his muscles ached and his lungs felt like they were on fire. Suddenly, he could feel himself aging. He slowed down a little. He continued to age, and Yui and Shinji remained the same.

Gendo Ikari, Commander of NERV, continued to age. He now slowed down to a snail's crawl and finally fell to his knees.

"Yui…" he wheezed, his lungs feeling like lead weights.

And Shinji turned around and stopped. Yui stopped with him.

"Mommy," Shinji asked in that innocent voice that Gendo remembered the voice that had begged him not to leave, "Who's that?"

Yui turned around. She was as beautiful as ever, her face bordered with black-reddish hair.

_'That's your daddy, Shinji' was what Gendo thought she would say._

"Just a weird, creepy old man, Shinji, don't pay any attention to him,"

And the figures along the road broke their silence. Their laughter came in all kinds of forms: male and female, young and old, high and low. 

Gendo Ikari hung his head, as the shadowy figures laughed at him.

Misato was in an attic somewhere. She was rummaging through the chests looking for something. Behind her, suddenly, a bearded fat man in a western suit appeared, with an American western tie and a bag of popcorn. He looked around and appeared to be disappointed. Misato didn't ask what was wrong or who he was; she was too busy going through another chest. The fat man watched her for a few moments.

"Wh—wh—what uh—are ya—you  lo—looking f—f—f—for?" he asked.

"Love," she answered.

"Oh,"

Asuka cried and cried. She was a toddler, and she was reliving a familiar scene…

Rei was rocking a cradle. She didn't know why she was rocking a cradle, but she was and that was that. The pale, blue-haired girl looked around at the room she was in. The walls were covered with paper that showed hundreds of SDATs. A mobile with small versions of Unit-01 floated over the cradle. Somewhere a cello was playing, the haunting melody sending chills up her spine. But Rei continued to rock the cradle.

It occurred to her that she hadn't looked at the baby in a while (of course, she hadn't seen the baby before, but the logic of our world does not apply to the Dreaming).

The baby looked up at her with deep blue eyes. Dressed in a little plug suit that sported the number "01" the baby rubbed his black hair against his pillow and began saying something; repeating it over and over again.

"I musn't run away I musn't run away,"

And Shinji floated over a swirling mass of white. He was dressed in a loose white garment that snapped around him. 

He was happy. He didn't feel alone anymore. He was pushing past walls that were as thin as paper to him. He wanted more people to be like this. To be happy.

And so he burst through the dreams, and he drew them in…

"Misato?" 

At the sound of her name, Misato turned around to find herself standing on a towering rock. Before her was a small red-headed girl, who looked confused.

"Asuka?" asked Misato. The German girl had never seemed so fragile before.

"What's happening? Where are we?" 

Misato reached out and hugged the smaller version of the Second Child. As she did so, she saw something that astonished her: Shinji, floating over a…well, _something wearing a white toga-thing._

"Oh my God," Misato cried, her hair whipping around her from the wind, "Is that _Shinji?"_

"It would appear to be so, Major," rasped a dark voice behind her. Misato turned around and saw an old man in Commander Ikari's uniform. His hair and beard were completely white and his face was lined and wrinkled. One of his shaking, arthritic hands reached up and pushed his tinted glasses up a bony nose.

"Commander?"

"Yes, Major. This situation is quite…Rei?"

Rei was standing behind Asuka, a baby's bottle of milk in her hand. She looked shocked to suddenly be there, and looked around briefly.

Misato stood up, her hand reaching up to her head. She could tell a headache was coming on.

"What in hell is going on, sir? Where are we?"

**"You are dreaming; nothing more."**

The group turned and found a tall young man who was paler than Rei and wore a decorative robe of white. An emerald hung from a gold chain around his neck. His long white hair waved in front of eyes that looked like the night sky, complete with dozens of stars.

One of these stars flared brilliantly in his left eye as he slowly approached them. His stride was regal and graceful; it was that of a confident person, secure in his lordship over everyone else. He stopped about two yards in front of the group, clasped his hands behind his back and looked each of them over.

**"I apologize for this…inconvenience. I shall attend to it immediately. Awaken now; this dream is over."**

Across Tokyo-3, people woke up. But they woke up with more questions than they had when they had gone to bed.

Shinji frowned. He had felt the presence of four others, but something had cut him off. Something big. Something powerful.

**"Enough!"**

Shinji opened his eyes to see the man in white.

"Huh…wh—who are you?"

**"I am the Lord of the Dreaming, Shinji Ikari, and you have done some damage. Fortunately, it is nothing I cannot repair. But still," the stranger gently laid a hand on Shinji's shoulder, ****"We must talk…"**


	3. Chapter Two

THE RAILWAYS END-CHAPTER 2

_In which Shinji learns of his position_

_Misato drinks_

_Asuka__ cries_

_And the story really begins?_

The rock that they stood upon was harsh to Shinji's bare feet. The white garment that had been flapping so splendidly about his body when he had floated over the vortex was now causing trouble, as he desperately tried to maintain his dignity in front of this ghost-like figure.

**"Is there a problem?" asked the pale young man, a star shining brilliantly in his right eye.**

"Uh, yeah," said a blushing Shinji, trying to get his robe to cover his rear-end, "This…thing doesn't give a lot of cover,"

**"I see," said the ghost-like fellow, who raised a hand. Shinji's robe then vanished, leaving in its stead his school uniform.**

"Uh, thanks," muttered the astonished Third Child, "You said you wanted to talk to me?"

**"Indeed," replied Dream of the Endless.**

Rei could not get back to sleep.

She could not understand why; she had never had any difficulty before. But now it was like someone was barring her attempts at rest.

She could remember the dream in detail. The baby Shinji, the elderly Commander, Misato, the younger Sohryu…and Ikari, floating serenely over a swirling…thing.

And the mysterious figure who had interrupted the dream.

Rei decided, then and there, that something was wrong. Very wrong. She rose from her blankets and walked to her dresser, pulling out a drawer and retrieving some underpants.

It was a bizarre feeling, but she must see if it was correct.

She had to see if Shinji was in danger.

"I'm a Vortex?"

**"Yes,"**

"What is that?"

Dream held out a hand and a glass ball appeared. Within it appeared a face, surrounded by other faces.

**"I do not know why, but in every era, a Vortex has appeared.**

**"The Vortex is a mortal who, briefly, becomes the center of the Dreaming. The Vortex is often unaware of it's affliction for some time, until it begins its usual patterns.**

**"That feeling you had before, Shinji Ikari? The feeling of joy and warmth? That is what accompanies the experience of the Vortex.**

**"The Vortex destroys the barriers between dreaming minds and draws them into one huge dream,"**

The face in the center remained stationary, but the other faces began swirling around until they became unrecognizable.

**"For some time, there is happiness as the Vortex draws in the dreams of every inhabitant on their world. Then the Vortex collapses; the dream goes with it, taking all the dreamers. There is nothing left, and it damages the Dreaming severely.**

**"It is one of my functions to prevent this from happening again…"**

Shinji blinked, "Again?"

**"Eons ago and half a universe away, a Vortex wiped out all life on a planet. Morpheus failed to stop it in time."**

"Who's Morpheus?"

Dream smiled slightly,** "My…predecessor, you might say…"**

The answer only confused Shinji even more.

"So…what happens now?"

Dream's face twisted with remorse.

Asuka had long ago learned how to cry silently. And she did so, curled up with her back to the door. The dream she had experienced earlier terrified her. 

Never before had she felt so…helpless. The dream had shifted so quickly, and ended when that…that _guy had said so. _

But it was Shinji that haunted her thoughts. He had looked so…happy floating up there.

But now? Now she was sure that he was in danger. Part of her insisted that she get up and head into the boy's room and see if he was alright. 

But the prevailing side told her to stay where she was.

And she did.

**_I do not believe I did that very well, thought Daniel as he silently stared at Shinji, who had sat down at the rock's edge, staring down all the fifty feet to the ground. The King of Dreams silently approached the boy and laid a white hand on his shoulder._**

**"Shinji," Daniel began, quietly, ****"I know that…this comes as a great blow. But you must know that there is nothing personal in this. I have seen your life, and looked into your tumultuous dreams; it is not fair, and I am sorry."**

Shinji was trying desperately to keep from crying in front of this…this god, as far as he could understand it. He was failing.

"Things come to a head, don't they?" he asked the being beside him.

**"In some ways, they do,"**

"First Mother dies…disappears, I guess I should say. Father leaves me alone, crying on the street…didn't even look back, like he'd turn into salt if he tried to look at me one last time,"

**"It has happened,"**

"Then I'm left with my teacher; brought to Father so I can pilot some freakish monstrosity; and now, I'm told by a god that I have to die so I don't kill everyone on Earth in their sleep."

**"I am no god."**

Shinji looked up at Daniel, whose left eye shined brilliantly.

"But…you said that you were the 'Lord of the Dreaming', I just thought that…"

**"I am Dream of the Endless, Shinji Ikari; I am beyond your gods in age and power, but I am no god."**

"Oh…"

**"Shinji, if you wish you may remain here, in the Dreaming. My raven Matthew was once a mortal man."**

"I don't know; would I ever get to see my friends again?"

**"When they dream, and sometimes in the Waking World, you may…"**

Shinji looked down. Then, awkwardly, he got up and said, "Thank you, sir, I think I'd like that."

And the King of Dreams smiled.

Misato was drinking. Her skimpy clothing was still wet with the sweat she had generated in her sleep.

The cool beer helped to calm her, but not much. The Chief of Operations for NERV had been frightened by her dream, and just couldn't work up the courage to check in on Shinji, even though she had the awful feeling that he was in trouble. She had lost so much in her life that she didn't believe for one moment that she could withstand the boy's death, if that was what this feeling was about.

The ringing of her doorbell interrupted her grim thoughts. She got up, walked down the hall, and opened the door to reveal Rei Ayanami in a crumpled uniform. The albino girl bowed slightly.

"Hello, Major Katsuragi, I…I've come to see Ikari."

Another time, another place, Misato would have teased Rei before letting her in and then teasing the girl and Shinji. But the Major simply let the First Child in. 

Shutting the door behind her, Misato turned toward Rei.

"Rei, why did you come here?"

The girl looked at the Major with those wine-colored eyes, and said, quietly, "I…do not know. I…had a…disturbing dream,"

"About what?"

Shinji's bed was empty. His physical body was in the Dreaming…

Dream of the Endless slowly approached the Third Child. Shinji tried to stand bravely, but felt himself trembling as Daniel got closer. 

"Will this hurt?"

Daniel raised a white hand and reached for Shinji's face.

**"For a moment; but it will pass quickly,"**

"He's alright, Rei, I'm sure of it," but Misato said this to comfort herself as much as trying to comfort Rei. The Major walked—almost jogging—toward the boy's room and reached for the latch…

The fingers touched Shinji's eyelids and drew them down. Pain seized the boy's body, going as quickly as it came.

He collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. He felt…different. Free…

Shinji looked up at Daniel, who was offering a hand to help him up. Shinji accepted the help and asked, "What happened?"

**"You died."**

Misato opened the door to see Shinji lying on his bed, SDAT still connected to his ears.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

"See, Rei? He's fine,"

But the First Child wasn't convinced. She approached the bed, which surprised the Major.

"Rei? He's okay; don't wake him up, he's the only one here still sleeping, just let him…"

She didn't finish. Rei had frozen and then leaped at the boy on the bed. She stared at the Third Child for a moment or two; then she—_Are her hands shaking?,  thought Misato—reached  for Shinji's neck and pressed her fingers against the side of his throat. Rei withdrew her fingers as if Shinji had tried to bite her. She stepped back, her lips beginning to tremble._

"Rei? What…?" Misato stopped and looked at Shinji.

His chest wasn't moving.

"Shinji? SHINJI?"

The wail of loss echoed throughout the building…


	4. Chapter Three

THE RAILWAYS END-CHAPTER 3

_In which we see Destiny's garden,_

_Attend a funeral_

_And witness the Grim Reaper noogie her little brother…_

Destiny walked.

Of course, he is almost always walking. He walks to see to it that everything is correct in his realm. 

The garden of Destiny is a massive place. There are countless turns and corners and untold numbers of plants and statues. 

"Statues?" you may ask, "Statues of whom?" 

Everyone, quite simply. Destiny cares very little about who comes into his garden. Popes, presidents, and emperors come and go; but Destiny is always there. 

And so, statues rise up in his garden, with little regard to who that person is or what they are doing (Newt Gingrich's statue portrays him on a toilet, grimacing in pain while viewing a Thai pornographic magazine).

The largest statues in the garden rest near the entrance to his Threshold. They are the statues of his family, the Endless.

His path took him to these statues, and he looked up at the face of his brother, Dream.

Dream's statue showed a passive face, the look of someone satisfied with the results of their work.

Destiny opened his book and began reading, the words forming a clear picture of what has been done. And then he spoke:

**"It begins, then. The child's path is correct, as are those of the mortals around him…"**

Kozo Fuyutsuki dabbed at his forehead with a handkerchief. How Ikari managed to stay cool like this was beyond the Vice-Commander's comprehension.

They had spent the last three hours watching a coroner slice open Shinji's body, probing around for a reason for the boy's death. The Commander hadn't moved beyond looking at his watch from time to time, as if watching his deceased son being cut open were keeping him from an appointment.

Finally, it looked as though the doctor was finished and the man moved toward the door while his assistants began cleaning up. Gendo stood up, followed by Fuyutsuki, and met the coroner as he stepped out.

The doctor had removed his bloody gloves and tossed them into a disposal while still inside the examination room, he pulled down his mask and nodded to the Commander of NERV.

"Can it affect any of the other Children?"

"Commander Ikari, in all frankness, I have no idea what killed your son; his heart and lungs…"

"Can it affect any of the other Children?"

"Well…I don't believe so, but your…"

"Thank you, Doctor; you may go." And Gendo Ikari turned to the door and left.

Fuyutsuki looked after the Commander in amazement, shrugged helplessly to the equally shocked—and somewhat repulsed—doctor, and went after Gendo.

_What are you doing?_

**_I am going to speak to them._**

_Speak to them? What are you going to say? 'Sorry I killed a boy who saved the world time and again and who didn't deserve to die after all that's happened to him'?_

**_Well…not in such words…_**

_Ah, jeez…_

**_I am new at this, my sister, I will admit that; but I must…_**

_No! You just look after the kid; I'll go down there myself._

**_But, sister…_**

_Dreeeeammm…_

**_Haahhh…as you wish…_**

****

The wood coffin lay before Fuyutsuki's podium. He cleared his throat nervously as the gathering of NERV staff and Shinji's friends stared at him, waiting for his words. Gendo sat in a chair to the Vice-Commander's left.

"I did not know Shinji Ikari very well," he began, "During his time here, he served with great bravery. I…know that he suffered a great deal in his life. His mother lost, sent to live with his aunt and uncle by his father…"

_Crap! Why did I say **that?**_

"But nevertheless, he stayed with us and helped us defend humanity. And for that, we should be eternally grateful."

And they came up and spoke: Asuka, Rei, Touji, Kensuke, Hikari, and Misato; all of them invoking memories of a quiet teenage boy that befriended them. Three broke down in the middle of their written speeches, with Kensuke wiping away his tears with his necktie.

The funeral ended in the cemetery, with a black tombstone bearing the Third Child's name and the phrase "May he finally rest…" inscribed on it.

Many said their final goodbyes there and left, leaving Misato, Rei, Asuka, Touji, Kensuke, and Gendo.

"What now?" asked Asuka quietly.

"We find a new pilot for Unit-01," was Gendo's cold reply.

There was silence then, as they contemplated the grave in front of them. The Commander turned around and was about to leave when he heard soft footsteps approaching. Turning his head slightly, he caught the glare off a corner of a silver ankh.

The ankh hung from the neck of a young woman, advancing from the other side of the cemetery. Her black-colored lips were in the form of a small smile, despite the surroundings. Her skin was white as fresh snow. Her wild hair was black as the space between the stars at night. Her clothing was just as dark, with black leather pants tucked into cowboy boots, and a black jacket over a black tank-top; her nails were black as well. Most bizarre of her appearance was the black lining around her right eye that went into the shape of an ankh at its right end.

She waved slightly as she got closer, stepping into the area of the grave. The others looked at her strangely, coolly regarding this intruder who had walked into their grief.

She looked at the coffin waiting to be lowered into the ground and smiled.

"You mourn him. Good; they all appreciate that…"

Her voice was light and beautiful as she was. It was like there were a hundred other voices like hers, rising and falling as she spoke.

Misato was the first to speak, "I'm sorry; did you know Shinji?"

"Know him? Nah; but eventually I meet everybody,"

Misato blinked at this answer, confused at this statement. The woman looked towards Asuka and Rei.

"It's okay to cry for him, you know; there's no shame…"

Asuka frowned and mumbled something about not wanting to cry for some dork-king pervert. The woman simply laughed.

"Oh, I see…alright then.

"But sometime, you'll have to cry; it does no good trying to hold it in."****

"How would you know?" snapped the Second Child.

"I know…"

And Asuka realized she did.

The woman turned to examine the coffin, talking on.

"Someone—I forget who, my brother probably knows—once said that Death is an absolute. Probably right, but to get there you have to live," the woman leveled her gaze at Misato, "Speaking of my brother, he once said something to his son, Orpheus, a long time ago." The woman scanned the group with her dark eyes and said,

"You should mourn, it is the mortal way; the right way. You bury the dead and move on. 

"And at times," the woman looked at Asuka and Misato, "the horrible truth of his absence will hit you, like a blow to the chest. But this will happen less as time goes on.

"He is dead, you are alive.

"So live…"

The woman produced a black rose which she tossed into the grave and kissed the coffin lightly. She then looked up at Touji and smiled sadly. The woman walked up to the athlete and placed a white hand on his shoulder.

"Touji Suzuhara; I wouldn't see you hurt anymore and neither would my brother, so I'll tell you this: stay out of the third Eva."

"Huh? Whadda you mean?"

"Stay out of it; refuse to get in it. Don't worry, you'll have my guarantee you'll be fine,"

Light glared off of her ankh as she said this.

The woman turned and walked away.

"Well? What did she say?"

Touji turned around, still shocked, to regard Asuka.

"What? You were close enough, didn't you hear?"

"No, dumkoff', we couldn't hear anything. It was like trying to hear through water."

"…nothin'. Nothin' at all…"

Asuka huffed and looked toward where the woman was going, but the stranger was gone.

_See? That's how it's done…_

**_I see. Very impressive, my sister. Thank you._**

_Ah, no problem. How's your new servant?_

**_Resting at this moment; sleeping quite peacefully._**

_Huh. Say, Dream?_

**_Yes?_**

_If your servants dream, where do they go when they do so?_

**_That is for me to know and for you to find out, my sister…_**

_Wha…Dream of the Endless, are you teasing me?!_

**_Am I?_**

_Why you, come here!_

**_What are you…AHH!_**

_NOOGIE TIME!!_

*Hey, it's a new Dream…


	5. Chapter 4

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER 4

_In which we meet a proletarian scarecrow_

_Tour the library of dreams_

_Become acquainted with some old folks_

_And are invited to a wedding_

Shinji grunted at the pressure on his shoulder. He was in the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in and—Asuka or no Asuka—he was going to enjoy it as much as possible. 

But the prodding continued, and Shinji finally opened one eye…then both eyes…and then his mouth—in a yell.

Towering over the side of his bed was something right out of "The Wizard of Oz". The thing had a pumpkin for a head, and was wearing a white shirt and blue-jean overalls. The thing reeled back, as if startled by Shinji's wakefulness. 

"Jesus H., kid," said the scarecrow, "If I had a heart it would have been attacked right now."

The Third Child climbed awkwardly out of his bed. The scarecrow was still clutching exaggeratingly at his chest.

"S-sorry…I-I…"

The scarecrow waved a hand in dismissal; well, actually it looked like his hands were made out of merely sticks and green gloves.

"Whatever, no harm done; Lissen, the Boss told me to come in here, get you to breakfast, and take you to Lucian. You'll get your marching orders from him, understand?"

"Y-yes, sir,"

The pumpkin's right eye went up in mild amusement, "'Sir?' Hey, man, I'm no 'sir'; I'm just a poor schmoe like you. Mervyn Pumpkinhead, custodian, repairman, etc. to His Darkness, Dream of the Endless," he held out a hand to Shinji.

The boy reached out and took the glove, feeling the stick beneath the scarecrow's glove.

"Shinji Ikari."

"Alright, Shinji, let's get us some grub."

Shinji walked down the hall after Mervyn. Breakfast was quite an experience, although Mervyn seemed quite casual about it.

Well, as casual as a scarecrow could look, anyway.

The lively cafeteria had contained some of the most bizarre creatures Shinji had ever seen. He saw fairies, trolls, dwarfs, winged people, a tree with cats in it feeding the cats tuna and itself a cheesecake, Cyclopes, dragons, a person with two heads—one white and one black, an old man with a swan's wing, and a woman in tails and a top-hat.

And _those were just at the serving line (which was manned by three old ladies, who would have been precisely identical if not for the fact that each of them had an extra appendage that the others didn't.)!_

Shinji ate some toast and eggs, while Mervyn wolfed down a plate of what appeared to be Sunflower Seeds. 

Finally, they came to set of massive oak doors. Mervyn rapped on the door and said, "Loosh? Ya in there? I got the new guy with me."

Through the doors, Shinji could hear an elegantly accented voice call, "Come in."

Mervyn opened the door and made a sweeping motion, indicating that Shinji should enter first.

Books. That is what Shinji saw and could see as far as his range allowed. Books sitting on shelves, books piled on desks and tables, books on carts waiting to be shelved. He looked up and saw that the ceiling of the library stretched up at least eighty stories, with hundreds—if not thousands—of stacks on each floor.

Books were not the only thing to be found in this massive library. There were also some fireplaces scattered about, and other pieces of furniture gathered in certain areas. Many of the chairs and couches appeared to be antique.

While Shinji gawked at the sight, his eyes barely even noticed that a shadow had fallen over him.

Finally, it registered in his brain, and he turned around to find himself being examined closely by the tallest, thinnest human being he had ever seen. The man had a beaked nose, a bony face, and hair that spiked out behind his head. He regarded the Third Child through pince-nez glasses, which were attached to the end of a long, thin silver chain that went into the lapel on his tail-coat. His clothes were black, with a black neck-tie tucked into a black vest. He reminded Shinji of a bird, with those beady brown eyes and beaky nose.

The man looked like a stern schoolteacher, and Shinji wondered if maybe he had done something wrong and this guy would suddenly pull out a ruler and rap the boy's knuckles.

"So," the man began in an English accent, "you are Shinji Ikari, hmmm?"

Shinji nodded slowly, unsure of himself.

To the boy's surprise, the man smiled, reached out and grasped his hand.

"Welcome to the Dreaming, young man; I am Lucian: Librarian of Dreams."

Shinji continued the handshake slowly, and then looked around again.

"This place is amazing," 

"I imagine that it is to one seeing it for the first time," sniffed the Librarian, "this library contains every book written and unwritten,"

Shinji turned to Lucian, wide eyed, "How is that _possible?"_

"Every person has the potential to create, Shinji," Lucian replied, "The accountant you pass on the street may have written one of the greatest novels of all time and he will have done nothing but go to work and come home to his wife and kids.

Meanwhile, Mervyn had produced a pocket-watch and groaned.

"Ah, crap! Sorry, guys; I gotta get my ass down to the Village on the Turtle or the Boss'll go nuts! Nice t'meetcha kid, Lucian." The custodian then ran out the door.

Lucian harrumphed as he turned back to Shinji, "That creature can be…frustrating at times; but he's a good fellow, 'salt of the earth' as they say. But, now," Lucian put his hand to Shinji's back and guided him toward a nearby door, which apparently opened up into another almost as vast chamber of the library, "Let's get started with organizing the 'L's; you'd be amazed at how much more C.S. Lewis had to say…"

Second Impact destroyed many things, including historical items.

There were now fewer than five people who had been there near the beginning of the world. About twenty could remember when Japan and China were on the same continent. One hundred survivors of Second Impact recalled the days of Noah's ark.

Fifteen hundred were alive around the time of the Crucifixion, and three hundred of that number had either heard, seen evidence, or saw the Son of God perform miracles and remained steadfast in their Faith.

Five thousand recalled the fall of the Roman Empire.

Eighteen Thousand remembered the chaos of the last Crusades.

Roughly fifty thousand had lived in the Renaissance.

One hundred thousand saw Napoleon sweep through Europe.

Two hundred and fifty thousand watched Victoria's Empire span the globe.

Five hundred and ninety thousand had watched the First World War blaze over the globe…

These children of ages long gone were embittered by their experiences in the year 2000. They knew—as the experienced often know—that something was wrong with the world, and they immediately began to unite, as they often had in the past. Many of them had supernatural contacts and were able to gather information on what happened; and as the news spread, these shocked, betrayed, and angry folk began to take action. 

How _dare these stupid old men destroy everything the long-lifers had built! How dare these…these __children make demands on former kings, princes, generals, senators, and distinguished gentlemen!_

These people, who had survived wars and revolutions, were not weary of life, oh no! They had as much desire to live as the next human, and no aloof old men would stop them. So, contacts were made, officials bribed, and favors called in. The long-lifers gathered like a threatened wolf-pack, for they knew that they could only count on each other…

"_What do you mean you've 'changed your mind'?" _

Ritsuko Akagi put on her most menacing look as she glared at the Fourth Child. Touji Suzuhara had been doing fine in his pre-activation tests, like a good sacrificial lamb should be; then, a day after Shinji's funeral, he had come into the Testing Center to inform the scientist that he had decided to _not become the pilot of Unit-03._

The look on Ritsuko's face did not seem to faze Touji's determination. He did not completely understand why he was taking this step himself, but he was convinced of the correctness of his decision. 

"Look, Dr. Akagi; I know what I said before; but things change…"

"Like what?" demanded the blonde doctor.

"Like Shinji dyin' and all,"

The doctor rubbed the bridge of her nose and cursed under her breath.

"That has _nothing to do with…"_

"I'm not so sure," Touji interrupted, "When we were at the cemetery, some lady in black popped outta nowhere and told not to pilot the Eva,"

"You're relying on advice from a stranger?"

"That's not all!" he retorted, "Last night, I had a dream about that thing you want me to pilot. I was piloting it; suddenly there were flames all around me, and my arm and leg were gone!" Touji indicated his left side.

"That is ridiculous; you would be perfectly…"

"Safe!?" snapped the Fourth Child, leaning in close, "Don't think you 'kin BS _me, doc; me and Kensuke were in that thing with Shinji. We saw what happened to him; he was feelin' everything that happened!"_

"That…"

"I _can't risk it, Dr. Akagi! I've gotta little sister and she's dependin' on me…"_

"_I don't give a rat's ass about your goddamn sister!!" _

The scientist had stood from her chair, shrieking at the boy confronting her. Touji didn't respond, but Akagi realized the damage she had done. 

"I thought you guys were s'pessed to care about mankind, doc; I guess everybody's been wrong about NERV…"

He turned and left Ritsuko's office…

"So he quit…"

Ritsuko sighed and gulped down another mouthful of beer. It was nine-fifteen and she was at a bar with Misato. The Major was staring down at a glass of water.

"Touji's a responsible boy; I'm sure he'll be back,"

"He quit, Ritsuko,"

"For now, Misato; we…"

"_Will you shut up, Ritsuko!?"_

Silence.

"For God's sake, Ritsuko, I'm a _military officer; what the hell am I supposed to fight with, huh?"_

More silence.

Misato sighed and sipped her water, "Maybe it's time to rethink our strategy…"

Ritsuko's head snapped to the side quickly, "What are you talking about?!"

"All we've been doing the past few months is ordering teenagers around in those things; maybe we should be looking for better ways to kill the Angels than depending on Shinji to go nuts and start…," Misato looked pained for a moment, but then continued, "…we should be looking at the Eva's weapons. Maybe put more of the budget into developing things like that sniper cannon Shinji used…"

"What the hell are you talking about, Misato?! We don't have the budget…"

Unfortunately, Misato was now drawing on training given to her by the military, which had taught her doctrine used (to great effect) by the United States.

"Why the hell not? We haven't gotten another Eva in months! What is everybody doing with the money we're _supposed to get? Where's the development budget going?"_

"That's classified!"

The Major stared at Ritsuko. This wasn't the first time that she suspected that the scientist had decided that she was of higher rank than the Operations Chief.

"Fine," said Misato, getting up from her chair, "Play your secret little games, Ritsuko; play them until _everybody loses."_

And she left…

Lucian made a dusting-off motion with his hands as he looked around him. Shinji was not so relaxed; his hands were on his knees as he panted loudly.

"Is—that—all—of—the—'L's?" asked the boy. 

Lucian turned toward the Third Child, smiled, and replied, "Yes; thank you for the help, Shinji. Good work."

Shinji froze. Lucian's brow knotted in slight surprise.

"Is something wrong, Shinji?"

The boy looked up, his eyes far away. 

"No," he said quietly, "Nothing. Sorry,"

Lucian frowned. 

"I think you need some air, young man. Why don't you take a walk in one of the gardens?"

"…Okay…"

Kozo Fuyutsuki looked out at the ocean below as the helicopter headed off to Old Tokyo. Gendo sat across from him, running his fingers through his beard lightly.

"The Fourth Child refuses to pilot, Ikari; shouldn't we be doing something?"

"What the Fourth Child does is irrelevant; we shall simply find another pilot."

"Where, Ikari? Everything we are doing at the present has revolved around testing the Dummy Plug. Touji Suzuhara was supposed to be the one to activate the Eva Unit-03, which would then become the Thirteenth Angel. Then, Unit-01's Dummy Plug would be activated.

"At this moment, Ikari, we have a pilot who is mysteriously dead, an Eva that has moved for no one but the dead pilot, and an Angel sitting around in one of our Eva's in our hanger. We have very few options here,"

Gendo's cold glare fell upon his Vice-Commander, "And those would be?"

"As I see it we have four;" Fuyutsuki held up his right hand; one finger went up, "First, we could try to convince the Fourth Child to take Shinji's place in Unit-01. Judging from this Unit's past, synchronization is extremely unlikely, if not impossible.

"Second," another finger, "We could transfer one of our other pilots to Unit-03, with the same results,

"Third," another finger, "We could take the Fourth Child's friends or relatives hostage and force him to pilot," Fuyutsuki didn't like the glint in Commander Ikari's eye after that last one,

"Fourth," the last finger; _here goes nothing, "We purge the Angel in Eva-03…"_

"Out of the question, Professor," said the Commander immediately.

Fuyutsuki sighed; sometimes he despised being the Commander's prime advisor.

"We do not have as many options as we did before, Ikari. Your son's death means that we've lost our best pilot,"

"Rei can…"

"At best, Rei is _adequate," retorted Fuyutsuki. Someone had to have a conscience in NERV Command, didn't they?_

"Ikari, you have seen the same results as I have; the fact is that despite Rei's lifelong training, she has not been as effective as Shinji on the battlefield,"

"Rei is…"

"I _know what Rei is, but we have just lost a massive portion of our fighting force and now is the time to rethink things,"_

Gendo was silent. He turned and watched the ocean move past.

"Perhaps, Professor, perhaps…"

Shinji could not help but marvel at the sheer beauty of the garden he walked. It reminded him of pictures he had seen of the gardens at Versailles; massive canopies of leaves dripped down from equally huge trees. Fountains sprouted around the garden, spewing out water from the mouths of cherubs. Beds of flowers were arranged in several beautiful formations.

He sat down on a bench to observe a sizeable waterfall, which was pouring down from a mouth carved in the side of the Palace. The fall went into a pool which yawned out about thirty feet in all directions.

Shinji sighed, and closed his eyes, considering taking a nap here, in this beautiful, peaceful place. He did not notice two approaching voices, one light and salt-of-the-earth, the other dark and formal. The voices rose and fell, as if dozens of other voices were speaking the same words in the same voice.

"…for the warning dream, little bro'; I just checked up on the kid and he's doing fine."

**"It was of no difficulty, my sister. Although I am surprised that you would intervene in such a manner…"**

"Ah, who's gonna stop me? Those old farts who call themselves 'SEELE'?"

**"Indeed…Now, shall we speak of the coming wedding?"**

"Sure. I was thinking…Hey, your new guy's here!"

Shinji's knee was shaken by a hand and he awoke to find himself looking into the pale face of one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. She was dressed in a black tube-top and sweatpants. Around her neck hung a silver decoration that resembled a cross except that whereas a cross had a protruding stick at the top there was a loop. Her eyes were as dark as the space between the stars and she wore black lipstick.

She beamed happily at him, reminding him of a pale, black haired Misato…hell, for all he knew this could be Misato's long-lost sister. He was quickly learning that nothing was impossible here in the Dreaming.

"Um…hello…" he said, astonished at being greeted in such a manner.

"Hiya! How do you like it here?"

"Um…it's okay, I guess…"

She frowned a little, "Okay? You haven't been here long, then…"

**"Please, sister, he is very shy," Dream of the Endless said from behind her. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and faded jeans; he was also barefoot.**

Shinji sprang up.

"Uh…hello, master…uh, sir…er…"

The woman chuckled, "The proper term is 'my lord', but anything respectful will do."

"Oh…sorry…"

"Don't be sorry; you didn't know."

Dream chose that moment to speak, **"Shinji Ikari, this is my older sister,"**

"Hi, I'm Death

The boy's mouth hung open wide, even while Death grabbed his hand and began shaking it. 

She giggled, **"My brother doesn't have bugs here; you can't catch any with your mouth."**

"Uh, sorry, ma'am; I didn't know that he had a family…"

"Well, he does; me and five others."

She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled.

"I have an idea," she turned to her brother, "Why don't we take Shinji with us? We need somebody to handle all the presents anyway,"

Dream looked at his sister for a moment, and then turned his gaze to Shinji.

**"I…don't know, sister. The Three Norns _are from Heaven, after all: his presence might only aggravate either they or some of the other guests…"_**

"C'mon, brother; you can take care of your own, can't you?"

Dream drew himself up, **"Of course I can, sister; it is just…"**

"If you can't handle it, I can. Don't worry; he has to meet the rest of us, anyway…"

Dream was silent.

**"Very well…"**


	6. Chapter Five

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER FIVE

_In which Shinji dresses up_

_We meet the family_

_Finally see a wedding_

_And hear a compliment from the All-Mighty_

Shinji awoke two days after meeting Death to find a black tuxedo hanging on his closet. He climbed out of bed and walked toward the closet…

…about twenty minutes later, dressed in the tuxedo, Shinji was standing before two massive alabaster doors. He reached up timidly and knocked gently.

**"Enter…"**

Shinji opened the doors and entered the luxurious private apartments of the King of Dreams. He walked up a flight of marble stairs toward the ruffling sound of clothing being moved.

**"What do you think of this, Matthew?"**

"I dunno, Danny; it looks a bit wide,"

 Shinji turned around a column to see his lord and master standing in a white tail-suit before a large mirror rimmed with silver. The boy was surprised to see a sizeable black bird perched on top of the mirror. Beside the mirror was a marble-topped table covered with a variety of ties.

Dream frowned and turned to the approaching Shinji.

**"Tell me, Shinji: do you think this tie is too wide?"**

The boy looked at the subject of the question. It expanded to about three inches.

"Y-yeah, I think so…"

He half expected to be struck down by some dream-lightning for daring to question the King of Dreams, but Daniel looked at himself in the mirror again, frowned, and pulled off the tie. He then picked up a smaller one, held it up against his neck, and then tossed it away.

"Hey, so you're Shinji Ikari? Nice to meet ya,"

The startled boy looked around until seeing the bird on the mirror.

"E-e-excuse me?!"

"I said, 'nice to meet you'; you hard of hearing or something?" the bird replied.

Shinji's mouth hung open again and his gaze fell to Dream again. The being was currently examining another bow-tie before looking up again.

**"Ah, I apologize; Shinji Ikari, this is my raven: Matthew."**

"Uh, hello…"

The raven stepped along the mirror's rim to get closer to Shinji. 

"Weren't you alive once?"

The Third Child looked away and replied softly, "Yeah…"

Matthew had been a raven for almost thirty years, but he still recognized a difficult topic when he saw it. The raven decided to drop it immediately.

"So, uh, Danny, that one looks good," said Matthew, pointing with his beak.

Dream reached down and picked up the bowtie in question and, apparently satisfied, secured it around his neck. Matthew nodded his approval as did Shinji.

**"Excellent; come, Matthew," he nodded to Shinji, ****"you as well, Shinji," **

The raven alighted and landed on Dream's shoulder as the immortal being walked over to another table. On the table was a rectangular box wrapped up with silver-patterned paper and a gold bow and ribbon. Dream picked it up and handed it to Shinji.

**"This is my gift to Belldandy of the Three Norns; we are attending her wedding to Keiichi Morisato,"**

Matthew tilted his head jerkily in the manner that all birds have.

"Sort of big, isn't it?"

**"It is suitable enough; she _is my god-daughter after all,"_**

Both Shinji and Matthew didn't quite know what to say at this…

For the walk down to the Gallery, Matthew had flapped over to Shinji's shoulder and spent the time talking about various things that the two had seen around the Palace. Dream, leading the two, walked in brooding silence.

"You know I thought at first all these guys would be sorta snooty, you know with me not being an original dream, but they're okay. Well, except for Cain and Abel…"

Shinji turned to the bird, a somewhat uncomfortable maneuver as he had to adjust his head so that he didn't hit the bird with his face.

"Who are they?"

"You know, Cain and Abel?"

Shinji's face remained confused.

"Well, they're from the First Story. You know, the Bible. Anyway, Cain is the…"

**"Enough, Matthew; we are here…"**

Dream opened the doors into his Gallery and stepped gracefully within. Shinji was astonished that such a vast room was being used for so few things. There was an elegant couch, some chairs, but other than that the only other decorations were a series of paintings.

Well, he _thought they were paintings at first. When he was close enough he could see that they were actually objects hung within picture frames. They seemed to be in an order of some sort._

The first had a book that was wrapped with chains, and was labeled "Destiny".

The second held a silver ankh and bore the word "Death".

The third was a black space, labeled "Destruction".

The fourth contained a silver heart and was called "Desire".

The fifth had a ring with a hook on it; it was labeled "Despair".

The last was strange, as it held no single item but instead was a cauldron of colors (which seemed to be slowly moving and rippling). It bore the label "Delirium".

**"Come, Shinji, through here,"**

He turned to the white-clad Dream, who touched the first item. The book and chains warped into the frame, becoming an empty black space.

He looked into the frame and saw a white opening at the end of a long dark tunnel. The frame was fairly small, too small for Shinji to go through, even if he wasn't carrying a box.

"How do we…"

Dream placed his hand on Shinji's shoulder and then they were in an entirely different place.

In contrast to the alabaster white of Dream's palace, with its massive windows, towering columns, and strange things around every corner, the place they were in was deathly quiet. Though the Gallery they were now in was elegantly built, with marble floors and massive rugs that depicted some historical event, it was darker than Dream's home. A smell of great age and dust filled the room like a barely seeable mist. When Shinji had finished looking around his new surroundings, his eyes caught sight of a group standing in the middle of the room, a gathering of some of the most bizarre and/or frightening people he had ever met.

The tallest of the group was covered almost completely with a brown robe and hood. His face was almost completely hidden within the shadows of the hood, only his nose and small parts of his face were visible. His arms were the only other part of his body that emerged from the robe. Strangest of the man's appearance was a massive book, bound in what appeared to be ancient leather, clutched in the man's arms like a child. A ring protruded on a short stem, from which a chain extended to a shackle on the man's wrist.

Next to the man, apparently in conversation with him before Shinji arrived, was a…well; frankly, Shinji had no idea what it was. But it was beautiful, and he had the strangest impulse to rip off his clothes right then and there and beg it to take him, that is if it had female parts. Its golden eyes hung over those perfect lips, in which a cigarette was planted and being lit with a silver lighter that was shaped like a heart. It was dressed in a black three-piece suit and vest, with a red ascot tucked into the vest.

Behind it were the most bizarre of the group. A dwarfed, obese older woman with messy black hair stuck into a bun stood beside a younger girl, who looked maybe around Shinji's age.

The woman was naked, that was the first thing he noticed about her. He turned his gaze, embarrassed, but not before he could take in the details of this strange woman. Her skin was pasty white, and sharp teeth emerged from her lower lip. On her left hand she bore a ring. Extending from the ring was a barbed hook, sharp but apparently frequently used.

The girl was dressed in a leather coat, with a black mini skirt extending from beneath a shirt that said _Have a Nice Day under a yellow smiley face. Her hair was purple…no, it was yellow…green…and long enough to touch her ankles…no, as short as a Marine crew-cut…_

Her eyes were different colors, blue with silver specks in one and green in the other. She had extensive piercing on her ears, consisting of gold, silver, iron, and some element he could not identify. She noticed him staring at her, and she gave a short giggle, like a child's.

As if to complete the bizarreness of the scene, a medium sized dog was licking itself behind the girl.

Death was dressed in a formal black dress, with gloves, earrings, and a gold chain hanging from her waist that led to a pocket-watch. 

The robed man spoke, **"Well met, my brother; we are all here, then,"**

**"Indeed," Dream laid a white hand on Shinji's shoulder, and the boy immediately froze up, ****"Shinji, this is my family:**

**"Destiny, the eldest," Destiny nodded toward the boy gravely.**

**"Desire, twin sibling of Despair, beside her," Desire smirked and ran her eyes over the boy, as if measuring him for something. Despair merely gazed at the boy.**

**"And my youngest sister, Delirium, and her companion Barnabas," the girl waved shyly.**

"Where's Barnabas?"

**"RiGHt BEHInd Me, SILly SHinJI MaN," replied Delirium. The dog stepped forward, cleared its throat and said, in a voice that grammar teachers all over the world dream of,**

"Pleased to meet you; Nice to see a new face around here,"

"Uh…charmed,"

**"Shinji is here to handle our wedding gifts; I assume that…"**

Suddenly, Shinji was blinded as the gifts of the Endless popped into existence right there on top of Dream's gift. The piled presents threatened to fall over and Shinji hopped over a few feet to steady the load. After some more frantic footwork the pile was steadied and Shinji breathed a sigh of relief. He looked to the side to see Destiny staring at him, apparently somewhat bemused by this boy's recent physical efforts.

A voice that sounded like a mixture of a man and a woman's voices laughed out loud.

**"Well, Dream, your new lackey is skilled as well as cute! I wonder how much of a…talent he has…"**

Shinji blushed furiously.

**"The time nears, my siblings; come…"**

Shinji heard the sound of reality moving all around him, reorganizing itself according to Destiny's wishes. The light became much brighter; birds were singing, and when he glanced down he saw grass.

**"Matthew, guide Shinji inside,"**

"You got it, kid,"

A flapping sound ended with the _tap-tap of the raven landing on top of the tower of gifts._

"Okay, forward,"

Shinji stepped forward toward the building. Suddenly, he felt a hand pinch his butt. Shocked, he turned and saw Desire wink at him before waving for him to continue moving.

He continued walking, listening to Matthew's instructions until the bird said:

"Okay, here we are, set it down,"

Finally, Shinji was able to get a better look around. He was in a large room decorated with white cloth and balloons. A stage with microphones was set up facing a field of circular tables, with one large table set up before a set of cathedral windows that looked out upon a peaceful lake scene.

"C'mon," said Matthew, landing on the boy's shoulder, "Let's join the Family again. They're waiting…"

Indeed they were. Apparently, the banquet hall had been set up in a separate building from where the ceremony was actually taking place. The Endless were waiting by the doors, some of whom looked uncomfortable standing out in the open. Along the way, Despair had suddenly sprouted a black dress, probably to make others feel more comfortable than to preserve her own dignity.

Acknowledging the boy with a nod, Destiny led the group inside.

Suddenly, in front of them was a man. A massive man. A man who could easily be mistaken—at a certain distance—for a Bigfoot; only less hairy.

"HI! ARE YOUSE WITH DA BRIDE OR DA GROOM?"

**"The Bride,"**

"I THOUGHT SO; Y'KNOW, WITH DA ROBE AN' DA BOOK AN' ALL…ER, ARE YOUSE ALL TOGETHA'?"

**"Yes; we are friends and godparents,"**

"OKAY. C'MON IN,"

The group walked in and took up a pew. Shinji found himself sitting between Dream and Desire, with Matthew perched on his shoulder. Dream stared up at the front of the room with those dark eyes of his. 

A short young man in a black tux stood nervously near the front. Beside him was a massive grinning blonde guy with a tomahawk haircut and sunglasses.

Finally the music started, because the bride had arrived, assumed Shinji.

The congregation stood as the bride entered with someone on her arm, presumably the Father…

Shinji shivered. He felt a wave of energy left in the wake of the bride and the man who proceeded down the aisle.

The groom pulled up the bride's veil. She was beautiful, but—strangely—she had a blue diamond stretched out on her forehead and blue triangles on her cheeks. 

Shinji then noticed the other girls standing at the front; one was sexy, with bronze skin, white hair, and a blue upside-down triangle on her forehead. The other had long black hair, with a blue circle on the forehead.

The beginning of the ceremony startled Shinji out of his thoughts…

Shinji sat with the Endless at their table in the banquet hall.

While eating with the equivalent of the royal family of the universe was an honor in its own fashion, Shinji was uncomfortable.

But then, the Endless were uncomfortable as well.

It wasn't surprising, from what Shinji had seen so far of their natures. Dream had not said anything about a family to the boy, and the small talk he would expect from brothers and sisters was practically non-existent that moment. Shinji once again sat between Dream and Desire, and he could feel some tension between the two siblings; he was probably seated there to keep the two apart.

The silence at the table was interrupted by an understandably nervous waiter, who laid down plates of steak and fruit before the immortal beings. Death smiled and said her thanks; Dream said thanks as well but otherwise the Endless did not respond to the waiter. 

Shinji gulped and drank some water. He had begun to wonder whether his lord's family was as dysfunctional as his own when Destiny spoke.

**"Come now; surely one of us has something to say, it has been twenty years since all of us were together…"**

More silence, until Despair began to talk.

**"Tell us, Shinji; how goes life in Tokyo-3?"**

He was stunned, to say the least.

"How did you…"

**"We are the Endless, Shinji; between us, we know everything,"**

"Oh…well, I guess its okay. With all the Angel attacks, I guess they're doing fine,"

**"Humanity is constantly restructuring itself," said Destiny, ****"It is how they survive,"**

Just then, there was a tinkling sound as forks were tapped against glasses across the room. Belldandy and Keiichi rose and kissed, much to the apparent joy of the guests.

"YEAH! FINALLY!!" 

Shinji turned in his seat to see the white haired woman approaching the table; she had stopped to cheer on the bride and groom before continuing the journey.

"Hey you guys!" she declared cheerfully as she enveloped Death and Dream in a quick hug from behind.

**"A good day to you, Urd of the Three Norns," Dream said.**

"Nice to see you too, Dreamy," she smirked, tracing a finger along the point of Dream's chin. She finally noticed Shinji and smiled, her feline eyes dancing with mischief.

"Who's the new guy?"

**"Shinji Ikari, my new servant, formerly of Tokyo-3," **

The mischief vanished, but she kept up the smile, even though it looked a little forced now.

"Really, how…interesting," she was silent for a moment before saying, "Excuse me," and rushing off in a flash of white and bronze.

They watched her leave and then turned back toward their dinner.

Shinji sighed, "Maybe I shouldn't have come,"

"Nonsense," said Death, "You're fine,"

**"I gO TO LotS oF PLaceS WhERE I SHOUldn't HAVe CoME," chirped Delirium, ****"Or mAYbE I DON't Go TO LOtS Of PLaCes WHERe I ShouLd HaVE COMe; I dOn't KNoW: YoU KNoW…"**

**"Yes, my sister," sighed Dream.**

The hours passed, and the Endless slowly ate their food. Shinji had finished his rather quickly, and Matthew dug his beak into grapes that had been suddenly shrunk when Dream had glanced at them. 

Finally, Shinji rose, a little unsure of himself in this company.

"I-I'm going to the restroom."

**"Very well; do not take long, Shinji, we're leaving soon,"**

"Uh, okay,"

He left for the boy's room. 

As he approached the door, he became aware of someone watching him. He turned around quickly, but the feeling wore off. Slightly confused, he turned and entered the bathroom.

After he was done, he left the room to find a tall young man leaning against the wall. The man was dressed in a tuxedo and had long white hair that was tied into a ponytail.

"Hello," he said, smiling at the boy.

"Uh, hi,"

Still smiling, the man turned and looked at the banquet.

"So, you're from Tokyo-3…"

Shinji's mouth opened to answer but the man cut him off.

"Many terrible things going on there…" he mused, "They need someone with a good heart to help them."

The man turned back to Shinji and smiled…

That smile. Shinji had seen larger ones, forced ones…but this…this smile was brilliant, as if light was shining from it. It sounds ridiculous to one who has not seen it, but when Shinji saw it, he felt a great warmth and sudden happiness. The sheer pleasure of seeing that smile was the greatest thing he had ever felt…

And then a voice; greater, more magnificent, more glorious than the birth of a galaxy…

**_"You did well, Shinji Ikari…"_**

And the man was gone.

He was still a little dazed as he joined up with the Endless, who were saying their goodbyes to the bride and groom. Destiny remained silent, while Death chattered on about how nice it was to get away from work.

Shinji, with Matthew once again perched on his shoulder, nodded to the couple and left with Dream into the darkness…and the Dreaming…

"Uh, sir?"

Dream turned from the doors to his apartment.

**"Yes?"**

"I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but who got married today?"

Dream smiled a little.

**"Ah, yes…Keiichi and Belldandy have been…living together for some time. They were developing a romantic relationship that was a source of great…frustration for her sister Urd and Desire,"**

"Desire? Why did she…he…it get involved?"

Dream shrugged, **"Love is one of Desire's provinces, but in this case it's interference was forbidden,"**

"Forbidden? By who?"

**"The Creator,"**

"Oh…well, goodnight…"

**Author's Note: This chapter didn't go as well as I thought it would. Anybody who reviews this chapter will probably have a lot of questions…but right now I don't feel like trying to rewrite this thing and I promise that the next chapter will be better.**


	7. Chapter Six

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER SIX

_In which a man finds his hidden regrets_

_A young athlete feels the loss_

_And a mother begins to realize what an asshole she married_

The King of Dreams sat on his throne and contemplated.

He did this often, as deep thought is required in ruling the King of Dreams. There are new dreams and nightmares to create, relations with other realms to consider, the basic needs of his bizarre subjects. 

Dream looked up at the massive stain-glass windows that lined his throne room. The windows shined; they were always shining with the brilliance of Dream's creativity, his raw power…and his madness…

He stood. A tour was required, he had decided…

Kozo Fuyutsuki was working late. He was also falling asleep while doing so. 

Finally he gave up.

Fuyutsuki dreamed…

Fuyutsuki was dressed in a hiking outfit, complete with a walking stick. He was walking on a path through a fog-enshrouded forest. There were no signs of nature: no birds singing or flying, no chipmunks or squirrels darting across the path before the intruding human could arrive, not even ants going about on their pre-ordained missions in life.

There was no other sound than that of his hiking boots crunching against the ground.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps approaching from ahead, but because of the fog Fuyutsuki couldn't see the man until he had gotten about fifteen feet away.

"Hello, Kozo!"

Fuyutsuki blinked.

"Ichara? Domeki Ichara?"

The man—who looked to be in his mid twenties—grinned and nodded. He was dressed in a sweater and slacks that looked soaked; he also had some strange protrusions on his neck.

"How the hell have you been?" asked Ichara, approaching the professor, his hand outstretched. Kozo happily took it and pumped it.

"Just fine, Ichara, just fine! Why, the last time I saw you was in…"

"1999," declared the grinning man, "I brought my wife to see you at the university, remember?"

"That's right! Weren't you expecting?"

"Yes, professor; a girl: Yuki,"

"Well, how are they?"

"Oh, they're dead."

Silence.

Kozo Fuyutsuki's mouth was open slightly, and his eyes were wide.

"Yes, dead for…oh, fifteen years now, I suppose; I think the wife was in Tokyo when it was flooded and my daughter was with me,"

"Y-you survived?"

The man chuckled, "Oh, no; I broke my neck. We were in a car, see, and the bridge we were on suddenly wiped out and tossed us into the river." The man rolled his head back until most of his neck went down with the head.

"It was quick, not like Yuki, I'm afraid; her head was smashed into the windshield. She was still alive after that, by some miracle, but she drowned soon enough,"

Kozo paled.

"I…I'm sorry…"

"Oh, don't worry about it; nothing you could do…say, you wouldn't happen to know who did this, would you?"

Kozo gulped.

"No…"

Ichara sighed.

"Damn…oh well, nice to see you again, professor. Bye,"

And Ichara went on his way.

The professor, still pale from his experience, continued on his way.

Again, he heard approaching footsteps. This time, it was a young woman sporting tropical clothing who was gazing into a small jar that contained a small frog.

She looked like she had come from America and her greeting confirmed it.

"Oh, hello,"

"Hello," replied Fuyutsuki, "What's that you have there?"

"This? This is a Red Poison-Tree Frog, of the Amazon Jungle. It was found mostly in trees in a small area in Northern Brazil. I was studying it for a medical institute back home,"

Fuyutsuki blinked, "'Medical'? What interest would a medical…?"

"Because a local tribe had been using the venom secreted by this frog to treat skin diseases for years; I found that this frog had particularly useful effects on eczema, warts,  and—to a certain point—skin cancer."

"Remarkable…"

"Yes, it probably would have been the high-point of my career so far if I wasn't killed,"

The professor froze as the woman continued.

"I was two days away from leaving when suddenly the Amazon rose up…I was caught up in the force of the flood and drowned,"

"…and the frogs?"

 She looked at him gravely.

"Extinct, like hundreds of other species, animal and plant, that had yet to be discovered in the Amazon."

She frowned and sighed.

"I don't suppose you would know who did this?"

"…No…"

"Oh," the woman sighed again, "Well, nice to meet you,"

And she went on her way, the now extinct frog still being examined by her scientific eye.

Kozo Fuyutsuki was hardly surprised to see another person emerge from the fog in front of him. But what surprised him was that the man approaching was searching through a file folder, muttering to himself. He wasn't paying attention to his path and bumped into Fuyutsuki.

"Oh, oh sorry, sir," said the man.

"Quite alright, what are you reading?"

"A list of the items from my museum," the man showed him the list, "Artifacts from Greece, Egypt, Norway, and Libya. Antique and irreplaceable!"

"I suppose that you lost them in Second Impact…"

"Indeed! I was dusting off a Viking display and water flooded and destroyed my museum! Historical items chronicling the story of the pasts of some of the most important civilizations were lost forever! I shudder to think what other museums look like…or the sites themselves! What a waste!"

Still muttering to himself, the man vanished into the fog…

In a room decorated with trophies and sport posters, Touji dreamed…

The cheers were like a volcano bursting, roaring and seeming to rip open the sky.

"JAPAN IS AHEAD FIVE TO TWO OVER FRANCE AND SHINJI IKARI IS TEARING UP THE TRACK! ALL THAT SHINJI'S TEAM NEEDS IS FIVE MORE POINTS AND THEY WIN THE GOLD!!"

Touji Suzuhara tensed up as Shinji approached the half mile mark. Another few minutes and the baton would go to Touji, who would finish up the race while Shinji would go and take a well deserved rest.

He risked a glance into the crowd, and saw all his friends up there.

Kensuke and Misato were shrieking their approval, their faces colored up with white and red and waving massive finger-gloves.

Hikari blew the athlete a kiss and continued cheering.

Even Rei was there, sitting calmly in her seat waving a pennant.

Shinji was coming up now, behind Touji. The boy turned to grab the baton from Shinji, sending a smile to his friend.

Then, the baton was in his hand, and the crowd stopped cheering.

Touji looked around; the racers had stopped running, the fans had stopped cheering.

There was not a sound, only the movement of the wind.

Touji looked at Shinji then, and gasped. Shinji was slowly disappearing, right where he stood.

The Third Child was silently crying, tears running down his face. He looked up at Touji, smiled, and said, "Good luck…"

And then he was gone.

In her apartment, Ritsuko dreamed…

Gendo Ikari, dressed in the fine clothing of a European nobleman, bowed graciously to Ritsuko. She curtsied, and the dance began.

"Oh, my lord Gendo," she purred, "Your ball is magnificent,"

"Yes," he replied, in a dignified and refined accent, "I hoped you would like it, my dear,"

She bumped into someone.

"Oh, how rude! Sir," she looked up at Kaji Ryouji's hanging corpse, "If you don't mind, Lord Gendo and I are waltzing!"

With that she hmmphed and continued dancing.

"Would you care to go hunting with me on Saturday? The pheasant are particularly numerous this season,"

"Why, Lord Gendo! _I am a __lady!"_

He chuckled, then looked over and frowned.

"Oh, I must apologize, my dear, but that one is still twitching."

"Oh, how horrible!"

"Don't worry," Gendo produced an elegantly crafted pistol, "I'll take care of it,"

_Blam!_

The twitching Rei Ayanami finally went completely limp.

"Oh, I was so frightened, my lord!"

"Hush now, its good and done,"

And he drew her into a deep kiss among the hanging corpses of everyone she knew…

And sitting at her desk, Maya dreamed…

"Good work, Maya,"

Maya Ibuki looked up and smiled at Ritsuko before returning to her work. With her shovel, she picked up the limp form of another teenager and hurled it into the burning furnace of what looked like a massive Eva-01.

And the King of Dreams continued his journey through the dreams of others. He watched a crowd of faceless girls bounce up and down in acclamation of the musician on stage. There were no cheers, because they had no faces, but they seemed to enjoy it.

The King of Dreams then observed a young man driving a tank that was as large as a building, blasting everything around it to rubble.

He watched the angst-ridden land where a man walked on a path, between a light and a dark area. Birds were flying out of either side and letting loose their waste on his head.

The King of Dreams rode a large hamster into the dreams where a young woman danced in a field with flowers and cute animals, while around her cities burned, throwing black smoke into the sky except for the circle where the sun shone down on her.

He was growing bored when he noticed another dream…

Yui Ikari dreamed…

She was in her kitchen, humming to herself as she warmed up a bottle of milk.

"Gendo? Could you go check on Shinji? It's about snack time…"

"Yes, dear,"

She heard his heavy footsteps go up the stairs and sighed happily.

Life was turning out wonderfully for Yui Ikari. She had a loving husband, a handsome little boy, and a great looking future.

She tested the milk for one last time. Satisfied, she headed upstairs.

"Shinji? Lunchtime!" she cooed, "I got your…"

She went into the baby's room to find her husband standing before the cradle.

"…milky-milk?"

Gendo turned around. She gasped; Gendo had suddenly aged and grown a beard. He wore a black and red uniform, and white gloves…which were stained red. In his left hand he clutched a knife stained with a red liquid.

"Yui," he said, as if he were seeing her for the first in a long time, "You're back."

"I…was right here…" she said, approaching the cradle.

"And I am so glad…I had to make some sacrifices…"

Yui looked into the cradle, and saw her baby's little body sliced up, his blood spattered all over the covers.

"…but it was all worth it to see you again…"

And Yui, locked inside Unit-01, screamed…


	8. Chapter Seven

THE SECOND VORTEX—CHAPTER SEVEN

_In which Dream begins a project_

_"Luke" hangs a shingle_

_Touji comes back_

_And the red-haired German says good-bye again… _

In his cavernous office, Gendo Ikari sat and thought.

The news he had received was not good. Touji Suzuhara had been the best choice for Unit-03; his withdrawal had placed NERV in a tight position.

Sometimes Gendo truly hated the Marduk Institute; the word from on high was that he had just gotten a Child, and qualified Children were very hard to find and that Gendo would have to work with what he had. The situation was frustrating indeed.

The Commander knew that the Thirteenth Angel was waiting in the Eva down below. He also knew that Angel attacks came one at a time; therefore, the Fourth Child had unwittingly and single-handedly halted the war.

This was an intolerable situation. If he was to ever see Yui again Gendo needed the other Angels to come along.

No new Children were coming; the Angel was useless without the presence of a Child in the plug; and his force was cut by one-third.

Gendo sighed and reached for the phone. He had just made the hardest decision of his time as commander…

Daniel walked along the shore quietly in silent contemplation. A wind came up and blew his wild white hair to his right. The hair danced around his eyes, but he cared not, as his thoughts were on his new work.

He stopped beside a group of trees and looked out at the islands that housed thousands of dreams, tiny pieces of his kingdom.

Daniel drew out a pair of bifocals from his robe. He quietly regarded them for a few moments before turning and pointing at a part of the sand. The grains burst from the ground like a geyser, circling before settling onto a mound about five feet tall.

The King of Dreams then put away the glasses and set to work.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about,"

The woman turned to look at her employer, who was gazing about him through eyes covered with sunglasses. She raised an eyebrow.

He caught this and raised his arms in a grand gesture.

"Look around you; all these mortals walking about with gloom and doom. Reminds me of home," the red-haired man paused, "I hate this place."

The woman looked at him, her eye showing fading interest.

"Look at them, my dear; they're broken. Humanity is flushing itself down the toilet; all their hopes and dreams have gone down before them on a roll of paper. They've let themselves be intimidated by…well, enough soap-boxing. Let's get to work,"

The man who called himself Luke smirked at his assistant before flicking a hand toward a run-down building. The dust began to flow away. Red carpet emerged like grass on the floor…

Commander Ikari coolly regarded Touji Suzuhara as the Fourth Child entered the room. To his right stood Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki; already in front of his desk were Misato and Ritsuko.

The boy stopped in front of the group, his eyes tracing over them with not a small hint of suspicion.

"Ya wanted to see me, Commander Ikari?"

"Yes," the Commander stood up from his chair, his eyes never leaving the boy while he picked up a piece of paper, "I understand that you had some…concerns, shall we say…about piloting Eva Unit-03?"

"Uh, yeah…" said the boy, his suspicion arising.

"Hrmmm," Gendo rumbled, "I was hoping to convince you to reconsider leaving,"

"No. I ain't going to risk it,"

"I see. But you might be interested in recent developments related to the Eva to which you would have been assigned.

"We discovered an Angel within it."

Touji's mouth hung open in shock. Misato was frowning and casting glances toward Ritsuko, while the commanders appeared impassive.

"So you were quite right in your reluctance: if the Angel had taken control of Unit-03 you would have come to grave harm, possibly even killed. This would have been a disaster for NERV.

"We are going to purge the unit of this Angel within two days."

Touji frowned, and looked at the commander skeptically.

"How did that thing get in the Eva in the first place? Don't you guys watch out for that sorta thing?"

Gendo frowned and took a quiet deep breath.

"We believe it may be an act of sabotage; rest assured those responsible will be found.

"But that is a matter for later. When the Angel has been purged it will be quite safe to pilot it; I ask you again: will you join us?"

Touji looked around again and sighed.

"Can I think about it?"

"Of course…"

Touji bowed slightly and left.

She cursed to herself when the shakes started again. It took all of her strength—physical and mental—to restrain herself from leaping from her bed and running to the fridge, where the little metal containers waited with sealed little mouths that promised something sweeter than anything that could come from their human counterparts.

She gave a miserable sigh and rolled over, clutching her knees to her chest. Her tongue darted out and nervously wetted her lips before she rolled over again. 

All these years, she had been trained to kill and command. All these years, people looked to her to see that everything was running smoothly. And all these years, she had buried her sorrows in alcohol. Fear, frustration, loneliness, and weariness had been soaked with liquor and wandered into the darkness of her subconscious, only to leap out again and embarrass her.

Then Shinji died.

That night—easily the most awful since her father's death—was the night when everything in her slightly ordered world fell apart.

_"PLEASE, I NEED AN AMBULANCE!!"_

_She was screaming into a telephone. The boy was still on his bed._

The kitchen wall still bore the dent that appeared when the can couldn't offer her comfort. She had cleaned off the wall before bursting into tears.

_The men in white suits burst past her. They cut off the boy's shirt and inserted a needle. They opened a briefcase and took out two metal paddles. A high sound pierced the air as they rubbed the paddles together._

_Clear!_

_Thump._

_Clear!_

_Thump._

_Clear!_

_Thump._

_C'mon, dammit!_

It failed her. The best friend she had had for years failed her…

_It's no use…_

…if it could not help her…

_Call the Commander…_

…then to hell with it.

_*SPRICK*_

_Glug-glug…_

_THUNK!_

She stood in the room. _His room._

She was thirsty, and had gone for some water. But the door confronted her, and before she knew it she had opened it.

_Misato was shrieking. There was a violent thump and the sound of scrambling legs and arms. She lurched out of bed and toward the door, still half-asleep. She opened it and saw that Misato was on a phone screaming for an ambulance._

She had chided herself for days, when she woke up and opened his door, expecting him to be sleeping on his side. She knew that he was dead. But she also knew that it wasn't _right that he was dead._

The great Shinji Ikari, the invincible Shinji; these titles were a bizarre hybrid, a concoction of sarcasm, jealousy and admiration. He was so shy, and faded like a reed in the wind at the explosion of her voice. Before she met him she thought that she would meet a privileged brat, the scion of the Commander of NERV.

But the truth…

She saw him humiliated. She saw the boy tossed aside for a mysterious girl, as if the Commander had tasted a soft-drink and then—disliking it—chose another. He seemed so fragile, and it occurred to her that he was trying to save himself by becoming what she sneeringly termed, "A housebroken boy". 

It wasn't right, she knew. He treated her so kindly, and tried to keep the peace between her and…the doll. 

"Why you?" she whispered, as if the sign reading 'Shinji's Lovely Suite' could answer her; she did not see the short pasty nude woman watching her with a thoughtful glare, "There are a lot more bastards out there…why you?"

_She saw his door was open and looked in. He was lying on the bed, dressed in his sleepwear, SDAT in hand. She heard shivered breathing beside her and looked down._

_The doll was sitting on the floor, clutching her legs to her chest. Her skin seemed to glow in the darkness of the room. Her eyes…_

Dying. Death. To die. 

None of these things were ever really explained to her. The Commander had said that some might die on the way to her purpose. She had accepted this, without thinking about what it meant.

She was beginning to understand why people had funerals. Why it took so long for others to get over a death. It was merciless and cold, permanent and unyielding. It was something that the Commander could not conquer, a power greater than anything on Earth.

_Souhryu had come into the room. But she did not greet the Second Child. She was too involved with the boy on the bed._

_Any minute he will sit up and smile at me, she thought. He will say nice things to me like always._

_He lay on the bed._

_Please, Ikari?_

_The NERV paramedics appeared and tried to revive him._

_CLEAR!_

_THUMP!_

_Please get up?_

_CLEAR!_

_THUMP!_

_Ikari?_

_CLEAR!_

_THUMP!_

_C'mon, dammit!_

_Ikari…_

_It's no use…_

_…all that you've done…_

_Call the Commander._

_…you are dying now?_

Before _he had arrived, she had admired and loved the Commander, thinking him to be the greatest man in the world. He had smiled at her, with that cool smile of his, every so often to show his approval._

After the funeral, he had ordered Misato to turn over Shinji's personal items: the cello, SDAT, clothing, books and other items. He declared coldly that since he had paid for these items with his own money they belonged to him. Misato had obeyed—she really had no choice—and had brought all of the boy's things in her car. The things all vanished into the depths of NERV.

This cruel order was followed by another decree: all things related to the Third Child were to vanish. He was to be wiped off of all public records, his name to vanish from NERV records except those in Gendo's personal archive. The boy's teacher at school—'blind kitten' that he was—obeyed the order to never mention the young man again.

He was trying to erase the name of his son, to destroy the fact that he _had a son, not out of cruelty, she realized._

He was making his son disappear because Shinji was a symbol of how insignificant the commander really was before the greatest reality in the universe. Shinji now stood for something Gendo could never overcome.

It scared him.

And it terrified her…

Dream's hands traced lines into the head, creating and separating ears from the rest of his new work. He stepped back, dusting off his hands as he regarded the figure in front of him. He had decided early on that it would be a woman, and he had shaped a fine one that day.

The woman…no, girl would be more appropriate, was still in the early stages, merely sand now. He would see to her later, and with a snap of his cloak he turned toward the palace.

"Commence operation!"

Touji stood behind Ritsuko as Eva Units 00 and 02 took up positions alongside the third unit. Gendo Ikari was personally supervising the purge from Unit-03, and Touji was allowed in to witness the project in the hopes that he would finally agree to join NERV.

The Eva was drastically equipped for this operation. Heavy tubes were attached to the head of the beastly thing, connected to a massive vat of LCL. The plan was to stun the Angel with powerful shocks, then pump it's essence out of the Eva into the LCL, from which it would be ejected to the ocean and hit with three N2 mines before it could manifest itself.

There was the frantic clicking of keyboards and a black substance suddenly flowed through the tubes into the next tank. It took five minutes for the Angel to be purged from the Eva. When everything was done, the blackness almost filled the LCL.

There was a massive flushing sound as the LCL was drained from the vat and spat into the ocean.

The ground rocked, the flash of light illuminating the sea for miles around.

Until it all faded away to one point of light, gleaming off the corner of an approaching ankh…

Asuka sighed in relief, though she made every effort to keep it silent. The idea that an Angel was in their midst without their knowledge had unnerved her.

And, in the back of her mind, she had no wish to lose more friends.

_Wait a minute, since when is Touji my…_

"There you are!"

Asuka started and looked up, only to see blackness around her. It rippled into the form of a woman's face and upper-most body. A sharp point of light emanated from a corner of her ankh.

"I knew something was wrong when you were supposed to be dead and I didn't come for you; well, that's one against me…"

Then, a voice that Asuka hadn't heard in almost a decade spoke.

_"Who are you?"_

Suddenly, there was white. It was interrupted by the black tube-top and baggy pants of the woman Asuka had seen before. She was smiling, not at Asuka but at someone the Second Child could not see.

"I'm someone you should have seen long ago, when you left Asuka,"

_"But, I would never…"_

"No, you wouldn't. They trapped you here, in this thing. But your body left, it's mind destroyed. It's dead now; time to go,"

_"But…"_

"Sorry, I'm just doing my job. Now, c'mon," the woman held out her hands and gestured to the person that Asuka could not see, "You had a lifetime. That's what you get, whoever you are. Guaranteed."

Redness blocked Asuka's vision for a moment, but soon shrunk to a cascade of red hair. The woman was dressed in a plug suit not too different from Asuka's own, she turned around.

"Mama?"

Misato turned up an eyebrow and glanced at Ritsuko, who shrugged in reply…though a hint of concern came up in her eyes…

Misato pressed the com-switch.

"Asuka, are you all right in there?"

Kyoko bit her lip as she regarded her daughter. The dark-haired woman smiled kindly at the confused Second Child.

Kyoko turned to the woman and asked, _"You're Death, aren't you?"_

The woman nodded, still smiling.

_"And I have to go with you?"_

"Yes; that's what usually happens."

_"Can I say goodbye?"_

"Sure…"

Kyoko turned to her daughter.

_"Hello, Asuka," she paused, __"I missed talking to you…and was always very proud of you."_

"Mama," breathed Asuka, her eyes beginning to water, "why did you leave me?"

_"If I had a choice I wouldn't have, but those…bastards," Kyoko spat, __"screwed me…"_

"You died…"

_"Yeah," Kyoko sighed, __"I have now,"_

Mother and daughter looked at each other. 

_"Goodbye, Asuka; live your life to the fullest. Don't let this thing," she gestured around, indicating the Eva,__ "…consume you. I love you, Asuka."_

"Mama…"

And Kyoko took Death's pale hand. Asuka closed her eyes from the stinging pain of losing her mother for the second time.

_"Where do I go now?"_

"You'll just have to see…"

Asuka heard the beating of mighty wings…

Alarms were blaring. Ritsuko was looking at the Commander, searching for some meaning behind all this sudden chaos.

"What is 'dis, some kinda attack? I thought the Angel was dead?!"

Gendo Ikari coldly regarded the Fourth Child.

"It _is dead; there is merely some…malfunction within Unit-02. I will speak to you later,"_

Touji harrumphed and slid out of the staff's way. Reports were coming rapid fire. In much the same way, the tapping of computer keys was like machine-gun fire.

"Cold one, huh?"

Touji started and backed away from the source of the voice.

"Oh, it's you! Hey, uh, thanks for tippin' me off about that Eva,"

The pale woman shrugged.

"It was nothing. I figured that you had been hit enough by bad luck,"

Touji looked out to the red Eva, the subject of the chaos in the command center.

"Do you know what's goin' on? What's wrong with Asuka?"

The mysterious woman smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"The problem isn't with her; I just…righted a wrong. She'll be fine…for now…"

"'For now'? What does that mean?" Touji asked, turning to his companion.

But she was gone…


	9. Chapter Eight

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER EIGHT

_In which Delirium is enchanted_

_A German shepherd schemes_

_Monopoly is interrupted_

_Hikari__ falls down_

_And the dead are running away on Earth…_

The realm of Delirium is astonishingly different from that of her brother, Dream of the Endless. It is as if the entire contents of the world were poured into a blender, spun for seven minutes, and then dumped out again.

If you ever enter her realm—which is highly discouraged—you must tread carefully, for there is no physical path. You can be tossed down rows of unseen steps, fall into invisible holes. 

But these mere things are miniscule next to the disturbing grandeur of Delirium's realm. The whispers of diseased minds echo through it, and…

No. It is impossible to describe the realm of Delirium. But pray that you must never go there…for very few escape unscathed…

Barnabas scratched his right ear and yawned widely. Even dogs could get bored, and he would have loved to have lain down and catch some sleep, but that would have meant taking his eyes off of his charge and that, he had learned the hard way, could mean being lost and wandering the mortal world.

She was currently staring up with childish wonder at the sign.

**_DISNEY-JAPAN IS NOW OPEN!_**

_NEW MULAN GREAT WALL ROLLER-COASTER!_

_POCAHONTAS RIVER RIDE!_

_FUN FOR ALL AGES!!!_

_'Especially for immortal beings who consider gravity to be optional,' thought Barnabas as he looked warily at his companion. Delirium's mismatched eyes were sparkling with growing excitement._

_'Here it comes…'_

**"YiPPEe! COmE oN, BArnaBaS, Let's gO lEt's go Let'S GogogOgogoGOgO!!!**

"Now, Del, calm down; of course we can go, but first I want you to do something for me please,"

She looked at him from behind her legs and replied, **"ReeeAALly, BArnaBas? WhAAt?"**

"Let's get a third person to come along,"

She puckered her lips, flung her arm over her head, and looked like she was going to think, but Barnabas knew her too well and knew that she had already agreed; Delirium _loved company._

**"OKeE-DOkEE; nOw WhO sHOuLd iT BE?!?"**

Dream of the Endless had realized that one of the treaties with the Realm of Chaos was about to expire, and so he had invited the Supreme Manifestation of Chaos, Princess Jemmy, to the Dreaming in order to negotiate a new treaty. 

Unfortunately, as the King of Dreams remembered, Princess Jemmy was hardly known for punctuality, as she had a habit of wandering about. It did not help that the Kingdom of Dreams was one of the more fascinating places in all of existence.

And so, Daniel waited patiently at a table, with a considerable amount of ice-cream stacked in a large bowl at one end, tapping his long white fingers on the top beside state documents.

**"uM, BRotHEr? I'm iN My GaLLEry AnD i'M hOlDIng YOuR…Uh…SiGNEt? SIgN? SiGil? YeS, SIgiL…uM…"**

Dream sighed, **"You are welcome in my home, Sister,"**

To Dream's left, the air seemed to crack, like glass. The crack widened and opened up to reveal Delirium and her dog.

Daniel stood regally from his chair.

**"A good day to you, my sister," he nodded to the dog, ****"And to you, Sir Barnabas,"**

**"HeLlo, DrEAm," she squinted at him, ****"BuT nOt tHE fIRsT DrEAm, tHE nEXt oNe,"**

Dream smiled slightly.

**"And to what do I owe the honor of this visit?"**

Delirium squinted again and put her right arm around the back of her neck thoughtfully.

**"uM; I THiNK iT wAS FuN SOmEThiNG…"**

Barnabas sighed, "She wants to go to the new Disney Park in Neo-Yokohoma and I thought that we should bring a third person along,"

Dream looked at his younger sister, who was centuries older than he was, as a star blazed in his left eye.

**"I see; and I am to fulfill this role, I presume?"**

"If you can spare the time,"

**"I see. Barnabas, may I have a word with you?"**

The dog padded up beside the King of Dreams as Daniel turned aside.

**"I presume that there is some alternative motive beyond my sister's additional company?"**

The dog hung his head before replying, "Well…yes. I would…rather not get lost…again,"

**"I see," sighed Daniel as he turned back to his sister, who had produced a fish and a beetle, and was making them kiss (Lord knows how).**

**"Sister?" he asked pleasantly, to get her attention. She turned her attention from the now rapidly merging insect and fish and smiled in that uncertain, tipsy way of hers.**

**"CaN wE Go? cAN We? PlLlEAsSSeE?"**

**"I am afraid not, my sister; I am awaiting the arrival of an important dignitary. I am very sorry."**

Delirium's lower lip trembled, and her eyes began to tear up. Dream sighed to himself and patted her head, giving his sister a small smile.

**"Now, sister; just because I cannot go does not mean you may not have…fun. Have you asked our older sister?"**

**"BuT sHE's ALwAYs BuSY…"**

**"I see; well…"**

Shinji wasn't sure exactly _what Matthew—Dream's raven—did around the Dreaming. The bird, for some reason, seemed to relish in perching on the boy's shoulder and grandly answering his questions, but Shinji had no idea what the bird was supposed to be for. He had asked Mervyn—the grumbling custodian with a head made from a pumpkin—about it._

"What does th' Boss' bird do? I'll tell ya what he does: he sits on the Boss' shoulder, eats dead stuff, molts all over the friggin' place, _and shits all over the floor!! That's what the Boss' bird does!!!"_

Were it any other person, Shinji would have thought Mervyn a likely candidate for walking into his workplace and opening fire with a gun large enough to push over a cement truck. But when—in an alarmed state—he had told Dream about Mervyn's apparent breakdown, Daniel merely listened quietly and nodded as if in approval. Then the King of Dreams explained to the boy that Mervyn had been that way _before his present form and anyway this was how the pumpkin-headed custodian was __supposed to act._

But back to the raven; Matthew was currently in Shinji's apartment, staring at the boy over a game of Monopoly. The former Third Child was in turn staring down at the game-board. 

"You know something?" Matthew finally said, tilting his head to the left.

"What?" was the boy's thoughtful reply.

"This would probably be more fun if one of us knew how to play Monopoly."

"Yeah," agreed Shinji, "My teacher had some games, but he didn't really have time to play with me,"

"Hmmm," Matthew rumbled, drinking the tea next to his left wing by dipping his beak into the stuff and snapping it rapidly, "My old man had the time, but I guess I forgot the rules over the past twenty years."

"Your father played games with you?" Shinji was obviously amazed.

If the bird could have raised an eyebrow, he would have.

"Hey, I know your old man was a deadbeat son of a bitch, but that doesn't mean…"

"Uh, n-no," Shinji felt a small ping of depression at the mention of his father, "What I meant was I didn't think a raven would know how to play games…and I didn't know raven fathers stuck…around…"

Matthew stared at the boy for a moment, and then burst into laughter. Shinji was now as confused as ever. The bird flapped his sizeable wings in his mirth and knocked over a few of the little red hotels.

"Did _anybody tell you about ravens in the Dreaming?" cried Matthew between chuckles._

"Well…no…

"I thought so. Here's the deal, new boy: there's only one raven in the Dreaming at a time, it's a rule that the Boss made before your country was an island.

"I've been the raven for about, oh, twenty years, ever since the Boss let me stay."

Then it came rushing back, the conversation with the Dream King when he had first come to stay here.

"Oh yeah, Lord Dream said you were a mortal man once; what happened?" a thought rushed into the boy's head, "Th-that is, if you want t-to…"

"Ah, it's no problem, I…uh-oh, looks like Danny's calling you,"

"What?" Shinji looked down and saw that his lower body was disappearing into a rapidly fading smoke. Upon seeing this, he did something that most mortals would do when their bodies were vanishing.

He panicked with screams and all.

"Ah, calm down," said Matthew, lazily stretching out his wings, "Daniel's just calling you to him. You get used to it."

And suddenly, Shinji was in a different chamber entirely, facing his Lord and Master. He bowed at the waist to Dream of the Endless.

"Y-you called for me, my lord?"

**"Indeed; Shinji, you are familiar with my sister, the Lady Delirium?"**

The former Third Child finally noticed the girl floating over the table upside down.

"Oh, Lady Delirium," another bow, "Sorry, I didn't see you,"

**"HeLLo AGaiN, sHINji-mAn, wOUld yoU LikE a FiSh?"**

As soon as she had finished the offer, a small yellow and blue fish appeared and immediately entered an orbit around Shinji's head. He looked toward Dream, who had put on an amused smirk as he watched his sister attempt to make friends with the former mortal.

"Uh, thanks, but I don't have any place to put it,"

Delirium frowned, **"yOu dOn'T? ThAt'S tOO bAd; a LoT oF pEOplE doN'T hAVe pLACes tO pUt fISH," she rolled over in midair onto her stomach, fingers interwoven with her chin resting on them, ****"woUldn'T iT Be NiCE iF EVeRYbodY haD a PlACe to Put a fISh?"***

"…I guess so…"

Dream sighed and waved a hand. The fish dissolved into a swirl of colored smoke and then disappeared.

**"Shinji, my sister wishes to make a visit to…an attraction in your homeland; she asked me to accompany her, but I am afraid that I must attend to other duties…"**

"So you want me to go with her?"

Shinji's lord nodded before catching a rather large blue ladybug that Delirium had created and tossed at the back of his head. He set it on the ground before drawing himself up to his full height again.

"Why me?" queried the boy, pointing a finger to himself.

**"You are one of my few servants from Earth, from ****Nippon****. And," Dream grasped Shinji's shoulders as a star shined brilliantly in his left eye, ****"You are trustworthy; I believe you can complete such a simple assignment with little difficulty."**

Deep blue met bottomless black. One pair betrayed nothing while a cauldron of emotions bubbled in the other; pride, brief pleasure, and eagerness.

Shinji bowed, "T-th-thank you, sir, I'll do my best."

**"I trust you will," said the King of Dreams as he made his way back to his seat, giving a small smile to his servant, ****"If you need my aid, call my name and I will bring you back here."**

Shinji felt the small hand of Delirium on his shoulder and managed to look at her before he, the youngest Endless, and her dog vanished in a kaleidoscope of colors. 

Dream of the Endless sat at his table, only to get up again as a small child with a pink balloon and a T-shirt—which stated that whoever was reading it was only jealous that the voices talked to her—appeared at the door.

**"Welcome, Princess Jemmy; I trust you will find the ice cream satisfactory…"**

The van was borrowed from Hikari Horaki's father, and it was perfect for the transportation of five teens, two children (one of which was injured and was restricted to a wheelchair) and one adult woman. 

The trip was planned when Hikari had mentioned a desire to take her little sister away from the stress of Tokyo-3 to Touji. Realizing that his own sibling could use some fun, he took it to Misato who then expanded its sphere to include the two remaining pilots, her reason being that they could all use a getaway from Tokyo-3…more specifically away from reminders that Shinji was gone.

Hikari almost immediately charmed Touji's little sister Yumi and the two were good friends before the van had even pulled away from the hospital. Kodoka was no less friendly and barely noticed the other girl's condition as she chatted away about things ranging from cartoons to possible future pets. The teens barely talked except some small matters and to fend off questions over the possible acquirement of pets. 

After about an hour of travel, they finally arrived at the new massive park in Neo-Yokohama. Built around a replica of the castle from _Beauty and the Beast, the area was filled with shops, rides, and a number of service stations. A nearby beach was marked for further expansion but today it would serve another purpose: to serve as a landing pad for the Mil-49 VTOL aircraft now settling into orbit around the park. The Mil-49 was designated to carry the pilots back in case of an angel attack._

Touji nimbly climbed out of the van first and strode to the back to get his sister's wheelchair. Hikari and Asuka helped Yumi out of her seat and into the chair and they moved toward the park.

_'__Magic__Kingdom__', Shinji read off of the map he had retrieved off one of the Information Booths. He looked at Delirium of the Endless, who was currently engaged in twirling about wildly. He sighed._

_They have no __idea._

"Where do you want to go first, uh…mistress?"

Delirium stopped and frowned as if she had just bitten an old lemon.

**"WhY DId yOu cALl mE tHAt?"**

Shinji blinked in confusion, "What?"

**"YOu cALLed Me 'mISTer'…nO, No, yOU CAllEd mE 'mIStRESs'; nO oNe CAlLs ME tHAt. ThEY cALL mE '****Del****'."**

"Oh…sorry; I just thought that…"

**"ThE oNE wITh tHe dOORs,"**

Shinji looked at her, confused again.

"E-excuse me?"

**"YoU aSKeD Me wHEre I wANtEd tO Go fiRSt,"**

"Oh," he looked at his map, "Oh! You want to go to the Monsters, Inc. Door-Coaster!"

"You're a quick study," quipped the dog at Shinji's feet, "There aren't a lot of people who can understand Del on the first try,"

Shinji looked down and frowned slightly.

"What?" asked the German Shepherd.

"Well, are you sure you should be here? I don't think…"

"Don't worry," yawned the dog while he scratched his right ear, "As long as we've got Del here reality itself is at our disposal. She can take care of anything that comes our way; right, Sweetie?"

Delirium had picked up a leaf from the ground and was changing it into something not unlike a tiny kangaroo. 

It was one of the most bizarre things Rei Ayanami had ever experienced. She did not understand why anyone would want to seat themselves in a rail-riding vehicle that smashed at full speed into a large pool of water.

Even after she had gone through it she did not totally comprehend it. 

The First Child was not completely wet, but the water had splashed onto her head, causing her hair to droop down and allowing the water to drip onto her uniform. 

She was currently sitting at a small table out in the sun, in the hopes that the heat would dry her out at least a little. Rei closed her eyes and turned her face into the sun while a pale hand slipped into her pocket and touched a thin piece of plastic…

"Hey, First!"

Startled, Rei pulled her hand out of her pocket and stood up, her chair toppling backwards. 

It was Asuka, with two ice-cream cones clenched in her hands. One was two scoops of vanilla, while the other was a Rocky-Road generously sprinkled with small bits of chocolate. The German girl thrust the vanilla toward the First Child.

"Here; Misato didn't know what you liked so she got you vanilla, like your personality,"

Rei blinked. This was completely unprecedented in her experience (Asuka giving her something, not the jab). She tentatively reached for the offered ice-cream, murmuring her thanks. 

To add to a day of surprise, Asuka sat in a chair at Rei's table, licking her treat. Rei picked up her own seat and sat down before she began slowly eating the ice cream in her hand. 

The two ate in silence until Asuka stopped eating and looked up. Rei turned and tried to follow her line of vision, but saw nothing but some clouds.

"Where do you think he is now?"

Rei frowned, "Who?"

Asuka scowled, "Shinji, you idiot, who the hell did you think I was talking about?!"

"Oh," whispered Rei, "Is he not in the Tokyo-3 Memorial…"

"_I know where his body is buried, dumkoff! I'm talking about his soul!"_

Rei's mouth slightly opened and then closed. Asuka sighed and ran a hand through her fiery hair.

"I'm sorry; you don't understand a lot of things, I should know that by now,"

Asuka looked up again.

"Have you ever heard of Valhalla?"

"I have heard the name," said Rei quietly, "but I know nothing of it,"

Asuka snorted, "You need to get out more; Valhalla is the Viking version of Heaven, a wonderful place where dead warriors go to drink, eat, and screw," Asuka finished off her ice cream, tossed the remnants of her food into a nearby trash-can and put her hand to her chin before continuing, "I was just wondering if that's where Shinji might have gone,"

Rei looked at the Second Child questioningly and replied, "Do you think Ikari might be comfortable in such a place?"

The German girl blinked and frowned, and then she chuckled.

"Is there something you find humorous?"

"I was just thinking of that little dork in the middle of a crowd of muscle-bound blondes all towering over him, and getting a nosebleed at the sight of all the women," Asuka giggled in reply.

"But is Valhalla not a mythical place?"

"Well, yeah," said Asuka, crossing her arms and leaning back, "But they have to come from somewhere, right?"

"'They'?"

"You know: the mythical places; Valhalla, Atlantis, El Dorado. Something had to inspire those stories, right?"

The Pilot of Unit-02 smiled wistfully, "I've always wondered about that, you know? I've always wondered how it came to be that so many people suddenly said 'This place exists'. They're just so sure they know that a place like it exists when they don't even have any proof—screw that, they don't even _need proof. They just __know it exists and that's just fine," and for the first time since they met, Asuka smiled at her fellow pilot,_

"Sometimes I wish we could have that again, you know?"

Rei frowned slightly, "But, what of the Angels?"

Asuka's smile disappeared again and she sighed.

"Have you ever been anywhere besides Japan, Rei?"

The First Child shook her head.

"I've been raised in Germany, visited France, Italy, Spain, England, and America; everywhere I went there was some famous cathedral there. I used to go on tours on my days off—usually Sundays—and everywhere I went, there would be a priest and some worshippers, but never really more than maybe a dozen.

"Once I went to this place called the Wies Church near a town called Oberammergau. It's a beautiful place, Rei, _mein__ gott, it had everything: statues, candles, columns, paintings, everything that a priest could ever want. But it seemed like the only thing that most people wanted to do in there was to take pictures; the Cardinal who preached there only got a few dozen people at most."_

"It is my understanding that many churches have closed because of a lack of attendants," said Rei.

"_Ja, in Germany we have so many huge, old ones the government buys them and maintains them as places of interests; this was when one of the right-wing parties took over the __Bundestag and started some preservation works on old buildings. _

"But it seems so sad, you know: these places are built to glorify what my people believe in and now nobody seems to care…"

There was silence now, both girls contemplating their own thoughts.

"Where do you think he is?" asked Asuka.

"I do not think it could be hell; I might believe he is in Heaven."

Asuka gave her a smirk, one of limited pleasure.

"Yeah, no way _that idiot's in hell…"_

Shinji had been to hell and back.

He had first felt concern when he noticed the size and apparent speed of the ride, but he had a command from his master and he would obey. 

The next concern came when he and the other two arrived at the end of the line. The ride attendant had stopped them and was about to deny the group because of Barnabas' presence but Delirium had asked the man if he didn't remember that they were all kids who just wanted to have some fun. The attendant then looked embarrassed, apologized, and let them in.

Eight minutes later, after a harrowing ride in a virtual reality roller coaster, Del was now happily skipping towards Main Street, while Shinji tottered behind, a bit woozy from his experience. Barnabas trotted beside the boy, offering support if the boy needed it. 

"Barnabas, can I ask you something?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you like Matthew?"

"Not at all; he can fly—I can't, he's smaller than I am, theoretically I can drink and he…"

"No," sighed Shinji, "I mean were you human once?"

"Ah…" said Barnabas, looking up at the boy, "Well, no offense, but thank God I wasn't,"

"Oh," Shinji looked ahead, careful to keep Delirium in sight, before something clicked, "W-what do you mean?"

"Well—again no offense—you people are royally screwed up; I'm happy being a dog, we don't have to tear everything apart just to try and make ourselves happier."

"What does that mean?"

Barnabas just kept his gaze on Delirium, "It's not my place to say."

Hikari handed over the yen for the coffee-cup she was buying for her father. Mr. Horaki was not home for much of the day, a victim of the work schedule at NERV, but she still treated him with the respect due a parent.

She had responsibilities. She was the trustworthy one. The girl who could get things done. Her elder sister had faltered at the idea of her expected duties and so the middle child met her father's expectations head on.

The cup was placed in a bag which she gingerly took. After thanking the vendor again, Hikari turned toward Rei and Asuka at the ice cream shop across the street and stepped out…

She felt the smaller body hit her, and for a moment the world became filled wIth nICe FIshiEs a**Nd**** bLUebeRry wAfFLes AnD gOldeN gOLf CLubS…**

And then she was lying on the street, her eyes blinking rapidly until all the little winged-pencils vanished from her sight. Hikari saw white legs that emerged from a long green t-shirt. Between them she could see a young man suddenly freeze, a dog looking questioningly up at him. The boy darted to the side behind a building, but Hikari had seen him already…

"Miss? Are you okay?" The vendor asked as he helped her to her feet.

"Hikari!" Asuka ran up to her friend, a rather calmer Rei following closely, "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh…oh, yeah, I'm…fine…" Hikari looked into her bag and her eyes widened. The mug was warped, the white, black, and yellow of the mouse on the side mixed with the other colors, like paints tossed uncaringly onto a blank wall. But what was strangest was that emerging randomly from what was once a coffee mug were the shapes of fish, waffles, golf clubs…

The vendor quickly snatched the ruined mug from the shocked girl's hands and went back to his booth, declaring his intention to replace it. Hikari seemed too dazed to say anything as Asuka suddenly began ranting at the girl who had bumped into Hikari.

"…you're friggin' going! You think that knocking people over is a part of the goddamn park?!"

"Pilot Souhryu…"

"I should knock your teeth into the back of your skull!"

"Pilot Souhryu…"

"What is it?"

"I believe you are frightening her,"

And indeed Delirium was somewhat frightened at the sight of this mortal girl screaming at her. _No one ever screamed at one of the Endless; they were beings to be feared, respected. Others might become annoyed with them but no one spoke to members of the Endless in such a fashion as Asuka did._

The youngest sister of the Endless backed away, even as the red-head quieted down. She hadn't meant to knock down Hikari Horaki of Tokyo-3. It was an accident. Hikari was nice, Delirium knew, and her aura smelled of strawberries and brand new playgrounds, a sure sign of the kind of people who Delirium liked.

**"I—i—I'm sORrY, I diDN't kNOw sHe WaS tHERe…I dIDn't MEaN tO…"**

"That's okay…"

Hikari moved around the corner of a building and caught a sight of a black jean-leg and white tennis shoe darting off behind a bush beside a massive man-made lake.

"Hikari?"

Asuka had followed her friend around the shop building. The Class Representative turned around and gripped Asuka's shoulder.

"You see that bush?"

The girl was pointing to it so naturally Asuka nodded.

"You approach from the right, I'll come in on the left,"

"What? Hikari, what…"

"Please Asuka, just humor me this once, please,"

The look in her friend's eyes convinced her, and Asuka nodded. She moved out into the street. Being in better physical shape, she moved faster than the Japanese girl and she approached the bush more quickly.

She turned and saw—to her half disappointment—that Hikari was being held up by a sudden glut of—ironically—American tourists wearing sneakers and carrying cameras, taking pictures sporadically.

_What was she so excited about? Asuka thought to herself as she looked at the bush…to find two deep blue eyes, fright and surprise filling them, staring at her over the leaves. They stared out at her under a mess of brown-black hair. _

Asuka was so shocked she didn't respond when the eyes vanished, and a human figure darted out from behind the bush. When her senses were regained, she looked after the retreating figure. 

"_Shinji?"_

Rei was already unnerved by the girl that Asuka had been yelling at. She felt like she should know the name of the girl, and some part of her was scolding herself about not knowing the odd stranger's name.

These thoughts were knocked out of her—as was some air—when someone barreled into her from behind.

The albino felt the weight of the person atop her, the hot breath of heavy panting.

"Oh my God."

The murmur was very quiet, but Rei recognized it immediately. She turned her head as best she could and caught a glance of…

"…Ikari?"

The weight vanished as the boy sped off her back. When Rei looked up, the girl was gone as well.

Shinji ducked into an alley of sorts. "Of sorts" because it was artificial, like everything else in the park.

He leaned against the wall, panting hard. He had only one way to go.

"Lord Dream? Are you there?"

**_"Shinji? What is wrong?"_**

"I messed up," Shinji sank down against the wall, trying to hide himself in the shadows, "I need to come back,"

**_"What of my sister? Has something happened?"_**

"S-sh-she's fine. I'm sorry, I can't do this," Shinji covered his face with his hands, breathing hard, "Please, I want to go home,"

**_"Shinji…"_**

"_Please! Just…let…please…"_

Shinji broke down, there in the alley, the tears continued as the seat warped and shifted into a soft chair in his apartments.

He cried and leaned back against the chair, his eyes opening to see the King of Dreams before him. 

**"What happened?"**

"I'm sorry," Shinji whispered as he slid out of the chair onto his knees, "I'm sorry. Just kill me,"

**"What?"**

"DO IT!" Shinji sobbed, his head hitting the floor before the Lord of Nightmares, "I'm shit. Nothing but shit; I screwed up,"

**"Shinji, what happened on Earth?"**

"They saw me…"

**"Who?"**

"Asuka, Rei, Hikari…I'm sorry…"

**"For an accident? You have misjudged me, Shinji Ikari."**

A long white hand reached down and picked up the boy.

**"Shinji, you must…"**

Shinji's eyes looked up.

**"…Enough. Rest now; I will speak to you later."**

Shinji bowed slightly and moved towards his bed before pausing.

"M-my lord?"

**"Yes?" **

"Y-you don't have a shadow," Shinji whispered.

Dream looked down at his feet.

**"Ah, so I do not. Does that disturb you?"**

Shinji shook his head and sat on his bed, staring down at the floor.

The King of Dreams stood before the flames in the library, brooding silently.

"From what I have heard of his history, my lord, I am not surprised he is upset. It can often hurt more to be reunited than to be apart, can it not, sire?"

**"Indeed, Lucian. I wonder…" Dream fingered his emerald, ****"I wonder indeed: what could we offer him? His home is here now, what can we give him here?"**

***This is perhaps the best line I have ever written.**


	10. Chapter Nine

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER NINE

_In which Old Ones sneak about the great ruins of __London___

_Shinji drinks Death's tea_

_And Yui gets a visitor_

White fingers gently dragged themselves across the sand of the face now taking shape. A pinkie traced the separation between lips above and below. Outstretched fingers cupped a new chin into being, and lightly dusted some more off to make it just right.

The fingers of the Dream King traced shallow coves and curves that made up the neck and shoulders. Without the slightest sign of hesitation, he cupped his hands and formed the breasts—of humble size. The nipples done, he slid his flattened fingers into the sand on either side creating slots that formed the separation between the arms and body.

Withdrawing his hands brought a small shower of sand against his plain white T-shirt and ever-present Dream-emerald, which was now reduced to the size of a quarter, hanging from a tight piece of black cord around his neck.

"Daniel?"

**"Matthew? I do not recall summoning you."**

The raven landed on the head of his lord, his feet settling in among the white curls. Dream took no notice, instead concentrating on creating a bellybutton with his right ring-finger.

"Delirium just arrived,"

**"She has? I did not sense her arrival."**

"Well, she was kinda scared. She thought you might be angry with her."

**"Angry? Why?"**

"Something to do with the incident two days ago, I suppose…"

**"…I see. Well, I shall see to my sister," Dream pursed his lips as he began walking toward the castle, leaving his work to wait beside the waters of Nightmare, ****"Have you seen young Ikari today?"**

The raven shrugged—in the manner that all birds shrug, by flapping their wings without flying—and replied, "I saw him moping around in the Library a few hours ago, I think he really just wanted to be alone for a while,"

**"I see…"**

It began atop Big Ben in the ruins of London. The two figures had come to the old clock tower—now submerged under water up to the roofs of Parliament—in a blue speedboat. When they got to the entry point, the more physically able of the two threw a dark brown tarpaulin over the boat, which covered the vehicle to the water level. The other—physically aged to a stage thirty years beyond that of her younger-appearing comrade, though in actuality he was vastly older than she was—had already climbed clumsily into the window and was now shining a hurricane lamp around as her companion hefted two bags through, throwing up great clouds of dust off the wooden floor in the process, before climbing in himself.

"How long we got, dearie?"

The red-haired man shined his flashlight onto his Rolex.

"About two hours, Hettie; you _sure you've got everything?"_

"Pish-tosh, my lovely; I may be as mad as the hatter but I ain't stupid! Let's head up,"

"Hold it," the man said as he stepped in front of her and tapped the stairs with his foot. A metal sound echoed through the tower. The man smiled at the "old" woman.

"Good old British steel; hasn't let us down yet!"

He bowed and made a sweeping gesture. Hettie curtsied and proceeded up the stairs.

After a short amount of time climbing up the winding stairway—both were in better condition than their ages would normally allow—past dusty floors where only bats and pestiferous birds now moved, the two arrived at the top maintenance floor. The man walked to the internal side of the clock face and opened a door that led outside into a short catwalk and then nothing.

Hettie began unpacking the two bags, pulling out a long object wrapped in a bag of its own. 

"Was it hard to get this thingamajig, Hobby dear?"

Hob Gadling snorted. "Hardly; a few pounds here and there and they were offering me a bloody Ruskie tank. I swear; the bloody Americans were tossing these things around like rice at a wedding back in the eighties."

"Different times, dearie…"

"I s'pose…are you ready yet?"

"Gettin' started right now, lovey; can't rush perfection…" was the churlish reply as the artificial campfire was started, and the blood of a virgin doe was poured into a bowl.

The Dream King, now dressed in a loose white cloak and robe and having sent Matthew on an errand to the Island of Giant Things, found Delirium in his throne-room, twiddling her thumbs nervously. She wore her usual black leather jacket, along with some tattered jeans and a mesh-shirt. She seemed somewhat upset and her face was set in a tight frown.

**"A good day to you, my sister; what brings you to my realm?"**

**"Um, iS tHe sILlY ShINjI mAN hErE? I wANTed tO…Um…tAlK To hiM?"**

Dream sighed and ran a white hand through his equally snow-colored hair.

**"I am sorry, my sister, but he is very upset. He has not spoken to anyone since your…visit…"**

Delirium curled her lips inward and a tear the color of old book pages floated away from her right eye, **"I-i-wANtEd tO sAy I waS SorRy. I dIdn'T kNOw tHAT tHoSE pEOple wERe tHErE, hONeSt!!"**

**"I believe you sister, and I am confident that Shinji knows this as well. But you must understand: Shinji Ikari came into my service under a most…unpleasant and unusual circumstance," he paused to collect the tear in a handkerchief, where it then gave off the smell of a new German car in the1960's,**** "He came into the Dreaming from a land where dreams have been shattered, where his life was destroyed when it had barely begun."**

Delirium's lips scrunched up. She hung her head before speaking again, **"WhY iS hE So sAd aLL tHe TiME? EvEN wHeN wE wERe hAVinG FuN hE wAS vErY sAD," she sniffed and vigorously scratched her head,**** "iT smELlEd lIKe lOnELy pLAygROuNDs wHeRE rUSTy sWiNGs sWAy fORwARd aNd bACk, tHeIR sQuEAks eCHoInG iNtO ThE CoLD NIgHt."**

And the Prince of Stories gave his youngest sister—though indeed; she was vastly older than he was—the story of his newest servant, Shinji Ikari. At the end, his sister squinted into the night-sky that eternally hung over the Dream King's throne room. 

**"sO hIs mOMmy iS tRApPed In tHE sCARy pURPlE tHIng? AnD tHe pAPa lEfT hIM?"**

**"Yes,"**

**"ThAt Is vERy sAD; iT mAKeS mY sOCks cRY,"**

**"You are not wearing any socks, my sister,"**

**"I kNOw tHaT, DrEAm!" declared the youngest Endless, ****"I dOn'T wEAr tHeM bECAusE tHeY mIGhT gEt dIRty! tHeY'Re iN My pOCkET!"**

And with that, she pulled a pair of patched up socks out of her right coat pocket and proudly presented them to the Dream King. The socks were dripping salty water and making sobbing noises.

**"I see…"**

**"So dO I," declared Delirium as she stuffed her socks into her belly button for safe-keeping, ****"hIS mOMmY mUsT bE aS SaD aS tHe ShiNJI mAN iS. i'M gONnA tAlK tO hEr aND tELl hEr aLl aBOuT HiM AnD aBoUT FrEnCh FRieS aND BlUE pEns anD…uM," Delirium scratched her nose nervously, as if searching for words, ****"oH, aNd sOnGS tHAt bEGiN wITH tHe wOrD 'Fly' And tHe nAMeS oF aLL ThE mAGPiES iN ****BElgIUM****!"**

**"Take care, my sister," said Daniel as his sister vanished in a prism of orange and blue light.**

The boy was curled up on a chair by a fireplace that held nothing but slowly dying embers.

_Dying, he thought, and frowned. __I thought dying would solve all my problems. That I wouldn't be a burden to anybody when I was dead; that I couldn't hurt anyone…_

He pressed his head into his legs, paying little attention to the approaching footsteps of the tall skinny man in elegant clothing that spoke of authority and supreme dignity. He only lifted his head when he felt the glow of a renewed fire.

Lucian tossed another log into the flames, manipulating it with a long black poker into a position where the flames could grow. The light cast a demonic glow against the librarian's face, and for a moment, Shinji thought that he could see the lines of Lucian's vast lifespan suddenly emerge on his face. After the fire was sufficiently roaring, Lucian set the poker against a nearby fire-tool set—one that was inscribed with the words "To His Majestie Henry VIII from the Emperor of Mars" in brilliant gold—and looked down gravely at the boy, apparently trying to formulate something to say.

"Shinji," the librarian began, "I was wondering if you could do something for me,"

"Huh? Oh, uh…sure…"

"Good," smiled the librarian. He produced a book from his coat and handed it to Shinji.

It bore a gold outline of a lion on the cover and the elegantly scripted title read _The Many Passions of Sir Burnaby Fudge; the author was Roald Dahl._

"I need you to please deliver this to the Lady Death and to retrieve the other volume that she has finished reading,"

"T-to Death?!"

"Indeed," said Lucian as he removed his spectacles and began cleaning them with a small blue cloth, "I dare say, Her Ladyship has very little to read besides collecting a few…" Lucian shuddered, "…magazines…from grocery stores or newsstands. So we arranged to send her new books whenever she needs one. She has sent word that she has completed the last piece and requires another one."

Shinji nodded and walked towards the direction of a door, stopping when a thin hand grabbed the neckline of his shirt.

"Stop!  Young man, do you even know _how to get to the Sunless Lands?"_

He looked back at the tall librarian, confused.

"The _what?"_

"The realm of Death of the Endless. You don't know how to get there, I take it?"

The boy's head twitched sideways.

"I see; well, it is actually very simple: go to the Lord's Gallery and face the sigil of Death—the ankh—and ask to enter her realm. If she is there and she wants you to come in, then she will bring you into her realm. If she isn't there, come back here. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir,"

"Please, Shinji," Lucian smiled, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder, which froze at the contact, "Call me Lucian. But, there is one more thing…"

"Yes…uh, Lucian?"

"Do not, under any circumstances _touch any of the sigils yourself; it is forbidden for anyone else but the Endless to touch them. Do you understand?"_

The former Third Child blinked at that, and nodded.

"Good; off you go."

The boy left through the door, walking in the manner of a half-hearted clerk.

Lucian, after regarding his glasses again and apparently approving of their condition, placed them back on his nose and drifted back into the eternal stacks of books. 

A satisfied smile—hinting of relief—was on his face.

This week, the throne room was to the _left of the Chamber of Dust and the __right of the Museum of Broken Statuary. In the weeks since his arrival, Shinji had unintentionally impressed others with an "unusual" gift of finding the throne room with little aid. He supposed it was a skill learned walking through the eternal tunnels within NERV towards one destination or another. But still it was impressive considering that Dream's palace was substantially larger than NERV, encompassing vast halls and rooms, massive gardens and zoos filled with extinct animals that Dream had shown benevolence upon and allowed to live on in dreams._

The first time he had walked into the throne room, his mouth had hung open like a dead fish. The room was so…_imposing, was the only word that the former pilot could come up with. A black-and-white checkerboard floor stretched out to football-field size, leading into side nooks with some doors here and there. Various statues standing on pedestals lined the room, dwarfed by huge windows depicting one scene or another. The entire room lay beneath an endless night sky, with stars and moons scattered hither and yonder. Every now and then, a comet would streak across the blackness, and the moons would go through the usual phases, but otherwise the expansive thing remained dormant._

It was the windows that gave Shinji pause; whatever form the throne room took, the windows were there. He could actually see them moving if he watched them for some time.

The center of every throne room is—obviously—its throne. It too took on various forms; when Shinji first saw it, the thing looked like an ancient Roman throne—no back, silver with a green cushion, and grand in its simplicity.

He peeked into the room first—he found himself doing this often in the Dreaming, having once accidentally come across Ruthven (a sharp-toothed white rabbit in elegant clothing) and his sweetheart (a human in equally elegant clothes) in a rather intimate position when looking for Lucian to ask a question. The rabbit and the woman laughed it off, but Shinji decided to be safe rather than sorry.

The throne room was empty—and white marble today. The throne—its seat flanked by griffins and a silver sun rising over its back—was at a low level, and one of Matthew's feathers could be seen at its side.

The sound of white sneakers echoed through the vast room, and the boy passed a giant clock in the shadows of the left side of the throne room before going through a portal and walking down a flight of stairs.

The Gallery was another imposing chamber; its finely crafted furniture only a sideshow to the real purpose of the room's existence. The sigils of the Endless seemed to glow with an unseen power all their own; Shinji almost swore he could feel eyes hidden behind the book, the ankh, the heart, the ring, and the mismatch of colors watching him. He shook away his inhibitions and faced the ankh.

He happened to glance to his right—and saw a mirror right beside the ankh. 

Shinji frowned and looked around the room again; this mirror was the only one in the entire room. Why did Dream put it in the middle of the row of his sibling's symbols? 

It was then that he noticed the empty frame, further down the row away from the mirror. It was made of crafted gold, but held nothing but black space within. Warily he approached the thing and examined it closely. It appeared that the frame was not meant to hold anything in particular, and indeed…

He frowned and he reached out with his hand toward the blackness in the frame.

Nothing. Not even a wall beyond the "back" of the frame. His arm waved about in the darkness for a few seconds before he withdrew it, amazed once again at the oddities of his new home.

Shinji quickly made his way back to the ankh, the Gallery suddenly proving too mysterious for his taste.

He paused for a second, and then said in a raised voice: "Lady Death? It's me: Shinji Ikari. May I enter your realm?"

At first nothing happened, and Shinji was beginning to think she wasn't home.

"Sure!" chirped a voice from beyond the ankh, which was now showing a glare off of one of its corners, "Come on over, kiddo!"

Shinji Ikari found himself floating and moving—moving towards the ankh, beyond the ankh, and through a dark tunnel, at the end of which was a door with a cheery "Welcome" mat at its feet…

She had gotten used to the darkness long ago. Though its cloak covered everything about her, she remained lit—a firefly of human skin and red-brown hair in a sea of black.

Every now and then, Yui Ikari would manifest in the eye-scopes of the purple behemoth she inhabited, hoping to catch a glance of her baby—for that was what Shinji had been, and for a mother with one child, it often remained that way.

But he hadn't appeared for some time now—she didn't know how long, having lost all sense of time years ago. And so, she would return to the darkness with her human body and nothing else, the body itself crafted to remind herself that she was once—and hopefully would be again—human.

She worried—you know how mothers are. She had worried since the very first day she found a girl with pale blue hair, white skin and red eyes being injected into the "Monstrosity", as she now called it. The girl looked exactly like her in many ways, and Yui was confused and frightened by the thing now trying to make the Evangelion move. Yui blocked the girl (though, on afterthought, Mrs. Ikari realized that the poor thing wasn't doing all that well at synchronization anyway) because the creature frightened her with images of what might come if the blue-haired albino succeeded.

When Shinji suddenly came to her—nearly grown up, and as handsome as she knew he would be—that day of her first battle, she was overjoyed. Her little baby was finally with her.

But he hated her—no, not her; the thing she inhabited. She could feel it each time he entered her in the plug, and the waves of despair she felt off of him made her cry, the tears absorbed by the uncaring darkness.

But where was he? For all the fear that he showed, he always came to her.

And then, Yui Ikari saw her: a girl in tattered clothing and bizarre hair. The stranger was approaching, at first a white speck, as far as Yui could see, and then suddenly right beside her. Who…?

**"hELlO," the voice echoed, and as it did so, Yui thought the darkness rippled, quivering like dark water before the voice, revealing flitting pieces of color.**

The girl looked with mismatched eyes up at Yui, clearly expecting a response.

"Uh…hello…"

The strange girl smiled grandly, flipping back a long piece of amber hair—wasn't it just dyed purple? 

"I…I am Doctor Yui Ikari," Yui bowed awkwardly, out of practice for over ten years in her introductions. 

**"tHAt iS yOuR NAmE?"**

"Yes; why?"

**"WoW, tHAt nAMe Is a nICE oNe; MUcH bETtEr tHaN MinE."**

"Which would be?"

**"uM…Is tHEre a WoRD FoR wHEn sOMeOnE pROmiSeS tO Do SoMEtHiNg, bUt hE dOESn't CoME aND eVERybODY cOMes lOOkinG FoR hIm aND hE Is lOoKIng fOr PuRPlE fLYiNg SnAIls iN hIs AtTIc?"**

"…I don't think so…"

**"oH. wElL My nAMe iS DeliRIuM…yEs, Delirium of ****The Endless,"**

Yui frowned at the name. It seemed to affect the world around her, creating fear and confusion in the darkness.

"So…what are you?" 

**"i aLReaDY tOlD yOu, SiLLy," giggled Delirium in response.**

Yui sighed in exasperation. She had now figured out that this was going to be one of those bizarre conversations.

_Well, better than none at all…_

**"I tHInk sO tOo,"**

Yui's eyes widened as she stared at the stranger.

"Did you just read my thoughts?!"

**"hMmM?"**

"Just now: I thought that having this talk rather than none at all is better than nothing and you just told me you agreed."

**"nO, yOu diDN't aNd I dIDn't,"**

"Yes I a-and you did!"

Delirium shook her head, replying, **"No, YoU tHOugHT: 'Well, better than none at all'**** aNd I sAId 'I tHInk sO tOo'. yOu jUSt sAiD sOMEthIng cOMPlETelY dIFFerrEnT." **

The woman's mouth hung slightly open. Not only had this…girl corrected her, but had done so in Yui's own voice. 

Yui reached out carefully and touched the girl's leather jacket…

**HATRED AND LOVE ALL AT ONCE WHY CAN'T YOU LOVE ME I'LL KILL YOU SO YOU CAN BE SAVED AND WHY CAN'T WE JUST GET ALONG WHEN WE COME DOWN EIGHTY-SECOND I'LL SLIT HER THROAT AND THEN I'LL CUT MY WRISTS AND WE'LL BE HAPPY ****FOREVER AND EVER IT'S ALL MY FAULT IT'S ALL MY FAULT I'M SORRY I'M SORRY WE SHALL HOLD OUT OUT THERE WHERE DREAMS COME TRUE**

She pulled her hand back violently and fell backwards onto her rear—which should have been impossible since there was really nothing here for her to fall onto. But the girl before the astonished Yui Ikari was already affecting the world around her, shifting and changing it unconsciously.

"_What are you?" breathed Yui in awe—nothing that the Angels or Eva wielded held such power like this young-looking girl._

**"I ToLD yOu. yOU aRe a SiLLy wOMaN, lIkE ShINjI,"**

"Shinji? You've seen him?" Perhaps this strange creature could help her somehow…

**"oF cOUrsE i'vE sEeN HiM," sniffed Delirium, looking somewhat insulted, ****"I'vE hEArd hIm AnD sMELlEd hIm tOo; hE Is vErY SaD,"**

"I know," she sighed, "Where has he been?"

**"hE iS WiTH My bRotHER,"**

"And that is?"

**"DreAM, mY bIg bROTheR," Delirium stopped and slipped a finger into her mouth, ****"aCTUalLy, hE's noT mY BroTHEr BuT He ReALly iS; hE dIeD a wHIlE aGo, aNd ShiNJi iS hIs sERvEnT nOW."**

Yui had stood up and was looking around—psychedelic waves were appearing out of the darkness as Delirium continued talking—but quickly snapped her attention to Delirium.

"Wait; how did Shinji become your…brother's servant?"

**"oH, DrEAm dOeS tHAt eVERy nOW aNd tHEn, bUt ThEY hAVe tO Be dEaD bEFoRe He cAn gET ThEM,"**

Now, Delirium is not as foolish as everyone thinks…well, let's just say that every now and then she produces a thought that is useful and leave it at that. And now she realized what she had just said.

_He's dead he's dead my baby is DEAD!_

Yui fell to her knees, her hands moving forward to support her as she leaned over and took a deep breath.

_No one told me…why didn't anyone say anything…why didn't HE say anything?_

**"wHo?"**

Yui didn't bother to look up into Delirium's face, didn't bother to answer the question.

Yes, she knew. She knew it: _he screwed up again. She __knew that Gendo couldn't face her now, with his failure._

Deep in her heart, she'd known, a long time ago. The late nights working at GEHIRN—she had a son to take care of and always managed to finish her work at an hour where she could go home to the little boy. But _he—HE would stay up and work nights, coming home at a late hour when she was drifting off into dream-land. _

It infuriated her—not only that he was cheating on her but that he thought she had been too goddamn stupid to figure it out. He came home with perfume on his clothes, and carelessly left them in her path when she would get up to go the bathroom. He would sloppily try to wipe the lipstick off of some article of clothing and—when the stuff had been deluded to a pinkish smear—he would dump it in the hamper, uncaringly. 

A disloyal, uncaring husband who did such monstrosities—what had she seen in him?

And now, the little boy who at least had loved her for sake of being the only kind influence in his life was dead.

It wasn't fair.

It couldn't be fair.

She cried there, in the darkness, as Delirium watched with sympathy.

"Hi, Shinji!"

He still could not believe that the pale woman dressed in a black exercise outfit was Death. He looked around the room he was in, and found himself thinking something he never thought he would use to describe the dwelling place of an immortal, all-powerful being: _It looks like someplace Misato would live in._

"Uh, hello, my la—," the boy stopped his salutation when he saw her look, "Uh, Death,"

The woman waved him further into her apartment, and he looked around while doing so.

The whole place seemed rather drab, with a few different colors here and there. A television tucked into a corner showed a Tae-Bo program with Billy Blanks (Blanks had died during Second Impact) working out with who appeared to be Marilyn Monroe, Rudolph Valentino, and an extremely sweaty Chris Farley and Sam Kinison cracking jokes just behind a dancing—and apparently very confused—Ronald Reagan. A light blue exercise mat lay before the box. A coffee table bearing a few magazines of varying size and a bowl of peanuts stood before a gray couch that had a few pillows and a teddy bear sitting on it. The entity had walked into a cozy little kitchen while Shinji was gazing about the apartment, pulling out two coffee mugs while reaching out for the pot that was sitting on the stove. 

A picture that hung on the wall attracted his attention, and he found himself astonished by the scene within the frame:  all of the Endless, including Dream, were apparently posing for a photograph. Destiny stood to the right in the back, his face hidden within the shadows of his hood, looking aloof as when Shinji first met him; Death and Dream stood on either side of Delirium—upon closer inspection, he discovered that the two had put their hands on both of Delirium's shoulders. Desire and Despair were in front—Desire with its coy smile, Despair with a slightly pleasant glare at the camera.

"It's a fake, you know," 

He turned to Death, who had come up behind him with a tray laden with a teapot and two coffee mugs. She was still smiling, though a little less enthusiastically then before.

"E-excuse me?"

"The picture; it's a fake," she said, setting the tray on the coffee table and beginning to pour, "I created it a couple years ago, so I could get a family portrait; the truth is that I'm not sure that the family would get along all that well if we did try to get a photograph,"

"Oh…that's too bad…uh, can I ask you something?"

"Maybe," she replied, a gleam coming off her ankh as she answered.

"Well," he began, breathing in deeply and looking at the picture again, "I notice that you have brothers and sister, but no parents…" he trailed off, looking back at the not-quite-so-grim reaper. Her face betrayed no emotion as she looked at him for what seemed like an eternity.

"We're not humans, Shinji," she said finally, "We're not gods either—or what you call Angels—we're beings who have existed since the dawn of time. We are manifestations of what makes you mortals who you are…let's leave it at that…"

Shinji nodded—having learned from others that it was best to not question the advice of the Endless. He was about to ask another question when his eyes fell upon a black framed picture on a small table across the room. 

The boy soon covered the distance and picked up the picture. He gazed into deep black eyes with two points of light acting as pupils in the middle of them. The figure was dressed in a long black coat, black jeans, and a black shirt, creating the effect of a man clothed in shadows. Long black shaggy hair gave the boy the impression of a dark lion surveying its realm. The man's face was lined with the marks of care, worry, and angst. 

For all the differences, Shinji knew something from the first second he was examining this picture: the dark man could have been the twin brother of Daniel.

_Well, an older twin brother…, the boy thought, remembering the youthful look of the white-clothed Dream.  _

"That's Morpheus,"

Death had come up behind him. All traces of a smile were gone as she gently pulled the picture out of the boy's hands and held it to her breast. Her eyes seemed to stare into nothing as she continued speaking.

"I guess I shouldn't have this—or keep it out here—but he was...my brother for so long I just can't forget him that easily. 

"I was probably the only one who treated him like my little brother…everyone else respected him. Either that or feared him; he was always the most visible of us, and he wasn't above spreading that big cloak of his and scaring the shit outta somebody."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and gave Shinji a small smile.

"I see a little of him in you," she said softly.

"You do?" asked the boy, a little confused.

"Yeah," she replied, setting the picture down, "He was a little afraid of socializing too, afraid to open up to others, just like you…"

She guided the former Third Child back to the couch and handed him a cup full of tea.

"I heard you had an interesting experience the other day, with Delirium…"

He looked down, "Y-yes…"

"Can you tell me about it?"

Shinji sighed and did so, if nothing because he felt he had little choice from this being.

Death calmly picked up a cube of sugar and dumped it into her tea as he finished.

"So Del knocked Hikari down, you ran, Asuka saw you behind a bush, and you knocked Rei down…again," she paused to take a sip of the tea, pursed her lips and reached for another sugar cube, "Then you went back to my brother and begged to be killed. Am I on the right track?"

The young Ikari nodded, uncomfortably. He then got up and headed towards Death's gallery.

"I-I sh-shouldn't have stayed here this long," he said nervously, "Lucian…h-he probably…"

"Come back here and sit down." 

And Shinji was back on the couch. Death stared at him.

"What's wrong?" she demanded.

"N-nothing! Th-there…" he stuttered.

"Like hell," said Death, "You can't hide things from me, Shinji,"

He cringed a little, and then looked down again.

"I…I guess it's because of Rei and Asuka…Hikari too,"

"What about them?"

The boy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "I'm supposed to be dead, right?"

Death didn't reply.

"Well, imagine if your friend just died. You're walking in a park, and suddenly you bump into your friend. He sees you and he runs away and disappears. Don't you think that would be upsetting? Wouldn't all the hurt you felt before suddenly reappear?"

Death shrugged, but he didn't notice as his hands went up to his face.

"All the time I was in Tokyo-3, I hurt people. I hurt Touji's sister, I hurt god knows how many people when I made a wrong step or fell in Eva-Unit 01. I was a friggin' menace…and then I died. I thought it would solve all my problems, you know, maybe some other problems. But it just began again," Shinji looked up again, "I…still see them…when I sleep. People crushed by buildings, missing arms, legs; I can see…an eye," the blue eyes became dead and hollow; "When I came to Tokyo-3, after my first battle Eva-01 was badly damaged. One of its eyes was destroyed…and then it just…_remade itself and blinked at me. That thing was a nightmare…and I made it move and shoot things and knock down…" he choked on the words a little, "…apartments and hospitals and stores and places with __people in them and…and…"_

A light glared off a corner of the ankh as Death spoke:

"And your father didn't care."

The tears came, unbidden.

"I was so scared…so scared…" he whimpered as two pale arms went around his shoulders.

"Scared of what?" asked Death of the Endless softly.

"That they…would make me go back…to _him…"_

Death said nothing as the boy cried into her shoulder. Nothing as he slowly gave in to exhaustion and dozed off.

She didn't say anything even when she saw the glow of an emerald beneath two stars blazing out of fathomless, black eyes…

"Here comes the bugger now,"

Hob Gadling stepped back from the opening and shined his light around the beams of the abandoned tower as he walked towards the old woman worrying over the concoction she had spent the last two hours creating.

"Are our little friends ready?"

"Just a second, lovey; then it'll be good and done and we can get some tea."

"Jolly good," he replied, looking up around at the creatures milling about on the rafters, "Good God, how many of them do you s'pose there are?"

"A couple thousand…ah, here we are!"

It was a red colored liquid, and Mad Hettie scooped out some small round pellets from the stuff with a straining spoon. The pellets were a purplish hue, with no special glow to them, nothing to indicate their purpose.

She tossed them out onto the dusty floor, and the pigeons flew down to them, the birds they are. Within a few seconds the pellets were gobbled up and the pigeons remained still, like small feathered statues. They were soon joined by more and more of their brethren as Hettie tossed out more and more of the pellets. 

Hob looked at the gathering army of pigeons and smiled approvingly…

"Fly slowly over this place,"

"Very good, sir," the pilot replied, knowing better than to argue with his boss.

Sir Alexander Chesterton—otherwise known as SEELE-05—was eighty-two years old, and an important British industrialist. He adjusted his seat so he could look out upon the fallen city that was once his country's capital. Chesterton sipped a glass of wine as he sighted Big Ben, and he leaned even closer to the window.

_Too bad for the old city, he thought to himself, __but its all for a good cause…paradise…_

A paradise where he wouldn't die and have to face the justice of a distant God. Where he would not be called to answer for smuggling Nazi's around the world, carrying on his father's legacy in doing so. Where he would not be judged for his finances to Holocaust 'revisionists' and his funding of racist movements.

_Well, it won't be a perfect paradise, he thought to himself, __the niggers will be there too. Ah, well…_

It was then that he noticed a cloud of small white shapes emerging from Big Ben. Pigeons. Hundreds of them, all coming toward them. _Not to worry, he thought to himself, __surely they will fly away as soon as they get closer._

The cloud came closer, and closer. 

SEELE-05's right engine spat out a glob of blood, feathers and bone; all that remained of the first pigeon to reach them. Fights seemed to break out between some of the birds as they raced toward one engine or another.

The plane bucked, like a wild stallion. Sir Alexander Chesterton could hear the pilot screaming…screaming as they began to fall…screaming just before they met the water.

The next few moments went by in a flash for Chesterton; he saw a pale young woman dressed in black clothes hold out her hand and he took it. 

He spoke to her for a few moments before she vanished, and he found himself in the middle of a field filled with dead grass. He saw a dead tree that had a hole filled with sharp teeth in its trunk grab a passing naked person and stuff the poor fellow into its mouth.

_"Welcome," said a soft voice from above him. He looked up and saw a handsome young man with golden hair hovering above him, silver wings stretching like the rays of a rising sun._

_"You have come here from a life of sin and hate; but the refining fires of Hell will make you into a better man than you were before…"_

_He looks just like an angel was SEELE-05's last thought before a red-hot barbed spear was plunged up his rectum and up through his neck.                        _


	11. Chapter Ten

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER TEN

_In which a door is opened_

_We find cracks in a great foundation_

_Blood is spilled_

_Rei__ disobeys _

_And a door is closed_

A young man walked through the winding hallways of Dream's Palace. White and navy blue sneakers tread softly against the shiny marble floor and turned another corner, only to suddenly stop at the astonished sigh of the shoes' wearer. 

Shinji Ikari sighed and shifted the box of scrolls to hold under his left arm so that he could scratch his head with his right hand. The gold bracelet shoved down his right wrist earlier slid down a little and he shook the arm to bring it back to its more comfortable position.

The day had started off strangely, with his discovery that the school uniforms he usually wore had vanished from his closet. Then a light knock at his door led to a blond member of the staff pushing herself in. Calling herself the Fashion Thing, she had given him the once over, laughed to herself and sprang upon him with a wide array of outfits that "would look just _daaaaarrrrrlllliiiinnnnngggg_" on him. Between stuffing him into Italian and French shirts, she had rapidly explained that His Darkness, the Monarch of the Sleeping Marshes had commanded her to fix his new servant up with a new wardrobe. So now, here he stood in a shirt designed by a Tuscan fashion genius who was pushed from his apartment balcony by a jilted lover, and a pair of black Dockers, lost while carrying a load of scrolls for Lucian from storage to a new room in the library newly built by Mervyn.

Over the short time he had lived in the Palace, Shinji had begun to learn how to navigate the massive place. He still often needed to ask someone for help, but it never seemed to be much of an annoyance to anyone else. One creature—a particularly large tarantula that carried a blue duck on its back—made a chuckling noise and mumbled something like, "Just like my first days…"

The problem—according to Mervyn, loudly proclaiming it to anyone who would listen—was that the Palace was subject to the whims of Daniel at all times, and that he didn't give a rat's ass about what other people thought about his building habits. So the staff would go about their duties as normal, paying little or no attention to the Dream King's alterations.

Shinji looked from one corridor to the other, trying to decide which one could bring him back into the upper levels of the palace. It was then that he remembered something that he had watched Asuka do when she was trying to choose an ice-cream flavor.

"Eenie meanie minee moe…"

He ended with the left hall, and he walked down that way half hoping that if this was the wrong path, Lucian or someone would be able to find him again.

The hall he walked in was white, like much of the palace. It was lit by torches that were in fewer numbers compared to the upper levels, causing even more shadows to be thrown by just about everything; it motivated him to hasten his passage through the hall.

A sigh of relief escaped him as he saw a large pair of doors at the end of the hallway. On the right door was a gold panel inscribed with the words "Upstairs" on them. He picked up his speed a little, only to slow down and eventually come to a stop when he saw it.

The door was average; an average doorknob, average hinges. No ornate gold knobs or bars. No exquisitely carved bordering—indeed, the bordering was a plain, flat, cheap wood. 

An ordinary door, among all the grandeur and august splendor, struck Shinji. Even the door to his apartment was more grandiose. 

He could not help his curiosity, which had suddenly risen from the grave dug and filled by his fear and insecurities. His hand reached forward and grasped the knob. 

A turn and a gentle push brought only darkness at first, but as his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see that he had entered a hallway, of the kind that coiled within medium sized houses. There were a few other doors; a mirror that hung above a small table, otherwise the hall was bare. 

The door he had entered through was against one of the hall's sides, far from what seemed to be the center of the entire thing: a single, unremarkable door at the end of the hallway.

_"Mama!"___

As he was beginning to turn back to the hallway of the Dream Castle, Shinji froze when that voice rang out.

Now, though the more uncomfortable processes of female maturity are well known, another factor that has not gained any fame is that girl's voices do not age as they become a woman. 

Thus, Shinji could recognize that voice anywhere, in any tone. It had been drummed into his brain, as if inserted by all the various forms of physical assault performed upon him.

He was almost quivering as he turned about, half-expecting a flying kick that would send him through the wall.

_"Mama!__ I made it! I'm a pilot!"_

His mouth hung open; instead of the one-person blitzkrieg, he saw a little girl rushing down the hallway, sky blue eyes full of excitement.

_"Mama!__ I'm special! Mama!"_

She saw him, but didn't stop to investigate as she rushed to her destination. He followed that fiery hair as it continued its path, astonished at how the small Asuka Langely Souhryu ran to…her mother…

A door was slammed open, in the manner that all small children treat things in the path to their mothers.

_"Mama…"_

At first, there was silence. Then, a small but unearthly wail rose from the direction that Asuka was rushing toward.

Shinji was shaking now, and he gripped the doorknob behind him, threw the entrance open, and fled into the castle's basement. He ran all the way up the stairs and slammed the heavy oak doors behind him, and then he leaned against the wood and began breathing hard. The boy shifted the box of scrolls as he slid down to a seat on the floor.

He had not heard the door to the German girl's nightmare slam shut after him.

The reason why secret societies cannot truly rule the world is because it is impossible for everyone in such a group to get along. There may be a strong sense of unity at first, but eventually rivalries will begin and fights will break out as a member or faction vies for power.

It had been difficult enough for Kiel Lorenz to get his group of industrialists and politicians together. One was an Arab and another was Jewish. A veteran of the Irish Republican Army and a former British state secretary refused to meet face to face. There were a variety of nationalities and religions within SEELE—and only the promise of eternal life kept the organization together.

Then, SEELE-05 had fallen out of the sky over the country he had helped destroy. It was a terrible blow—a reminder that no matter what weapons they had at their disposal, the members of SEELE were all mortal men. When they had gathered as monoliths the day after SEELE-05's death, the solemnity soon fell away.

"As a fellow Englishman, I _know that Number Five would want me to take over his resources and responsibilities as a member of this Committee. Number Five…"_

"Not a chance in hell, Nine!" the Irishman hissed, "I will not stand for the concentration of power into the hands of a goddamn Brit! If this is done, I shall withdraw my support from this Committee!!"

"_You cannot do that, Seven! We have _agreed_!_" roared a Russian voice.

Hidden from the others, Kiel rubbed his temples as he listened to the arguments. With Five's death, the internal fighting had started to gain the power that the racist had left in vacuum.

He checked his watch. There was a meeting with Ikari in two hours. They simply _had to present a united front…_

Or the foundation on which SEELE had built its empire would crumble into sand.

And Asuka woke up.

She tossed the blanket aside, sat up and rubbed her eyes. After a quick glance around the room, she settled on a choice of clothing and made her way to the door.

**Shinji's Lovely Suite**

Asuka stared blankly at those words before turning to enter the bathroom. 

Shower finished, she then walked to the kitchen, where Misato stared at a glass of water she held in her hand.

"How is it?" asked the German girl as she opened the fridge and pulled out the orange juice. She heard nothing.

"Misato?"

"Huh?" the Major murmured, blinking and turning to look at the younger girl. The glass of water slipped out of her hands and bounced off the table before smashing onto the linoleum.

The clock ticked. One minute passed…two…three…

The two simply stared at the shattered glass for that time. Misato then placed her hand shakily on the table and began to get up.

"Oh…uh…I'll…"

Asuka said nothing but stared. Misato's foot met the ground—and a piece of glass sank itself into her big toe.

"…fuck…" The curse was so low, that Asuka could barely hear it. 

The younger lady moved carefully, guiding Misato past the other shards lying in wait on the floor. They went into the bathroom, where the major quietly sat while Asuka began to carefully pull out the glass shrapnel. Tossing the little bloodied thing into the wastebasket, Asuka began to wipe off the toe.

"Did you sleep well?" asked the major.

"Yeah, I saw…" Asuka stopped and then whispered, "Yeah, I slept fine,"

There was silence for a few moments.

"Synch test today…"

"Okay," the Second Child sighed.

And Rei woke up.

Crimson eyes blinked before she pushed herself up out of the bed, carelessly kicking aside the sheets. She began to walk toward her bathroom…but stopped before her dresser.

_The smell of burnt flesh…_

The broken glasses were very light, but now seemed to have taken on the weight of her empty building. It was as if all the history of NERV seemed to pour its girth into them…

_Or, if not its history, then its evil?___

No. That wasn't right. NERV was a good thing, led by good…people…

She sank to her knees as something came to her. It was wrong. All of it. The countless tests; the battles; the Dummy Plug. Wrong, everything was wrong.

It was all wrong—for if things were correct, why would Ikari be dead?

She did not see or hear the fat, squat, naked woman who resembled a putrid corpse. But the First Child could hear the voice of Despair, as if it were very far away. 

And she shivered.

**_He cannot make you feel better; you mean nothing._**

_The Commander…_

**_Hehhehheh_****_…what of him? He is nothing._**

_He is…_

**_He is mortal; just like you. Open your eyes…_**

_No…this is not right. I must speak…_

**_He let the boy die…_**

_He did not. It is…_

**_He let the boy die. You believe he is powerful? Why does his son die, then?_**

_The Commander had nothing to do with it!_

**_How many times has he told you that man would suffer no longer? That your purpose would help everyone? _**

**_And you believed him…hraha…hrahaHAHAHAHA!_**__

Despair laughed and lashed forward with her hook, snaring and slightly ripping Rei's heart.

For a moment, Rei could barely see. The world became blurry before it suddenly cleared…and she felt something run down her cheek.

"But he is alive…" Rei whispered, "Or is he gone…and I saw a dream?"

She held up the glasses in her hand then…

"Why?" she whispered, before a demonic fire lit in her eyes; a fire lit by confusion and pain and fear.

"_Why did you let him die?_"

The glasses flew. They shattered against the wall, sending the glass cascading down to the filthy floor. The empty frames bounced twice before lying in a twisted pile next to her bed.

Blood red carpet was everywhere, with circular black booths built in groups of four littered around the vast floor. In the center of each group were exotic ferns, plucked from a forest near the Necropolis Litharge.

Lighting was provided by black chandeliers, which threw their light out through holes in a pan that hung off the central rod of the fixtures.

A long, sweeping bar dominated the back of the place, with black stools perched in front of it. A long mirror covered the bar's wall, almost completely covered with shelves meant to carry drinks of all kinds, especially alcohol.

At the front of the club was an ovular stage that was emerging out of the wall. The wall itself was covered with a massive tablet depicting a star that seemed to actually be glowing, while the checkerboard stage was dominated by a single black grand piano.

_Club New Star_ was going to open the next day and the man who called himself Luke had made a decision.

"We need another act, Merz," he declared to the woman who was stacking bottles of liquor on the cabinet behind the bar, "I feel no great need to make myself the sole source of entertainment here."

"Mlick noo?"

"Like who? I don't know! Do I have to…?"

Luke stopped to observe the sudden entrance of a huge red-haired man carrying a hobo stick over his left shoulder. His face bore light stubble and a knowing smile. 

The new man's gold eyes glinted mischievously as he made his way to the astonished two who were at the bar.

Luke suddenly grinned, stood up, and shook the giant's hand.

"Well, well…who'd think that _you of all people would walk into __my club? How the hell are you, my friend?"_

"Fine, just fine," the man answered in an Irish accent, "I thought I might drop in to see what new trouble you're stirring up…eh, 'Luke'?"

Luke gave a mock look of shock and hurt. He placed a hand delicately on his chest.

"Why, sir; do you really think that one such as I have nothing better to do than tease NERV's wrath by setting up shop right under their noses?"

The giant nodded sagely.

"Well, you got one on me. I thought I might as well have some fun while all this shit is going down; do you have a problem with that?"

"Oh no, sir; but there is something I wanted to ask you," said the man who called himself Sherman as he put a massive arm around Luke's shoulder, "I thought I heard something about an 'act'?"

Dream of the Endless—dressed in a white mixture of robes and tighter garments that were lined with gold leaves, rubies, and emeralds—stared down at his fidgeting servant with blank, black eyes.

**"Shinji, you have not spoken yet…"**

The former Third Child jumped a little, and then gulped.

"Uh…forgive m-me, lord; b-but I wanted to ask you something,"

**"Do you?"** Dream leaned back and brought his fingers together in a double-fist, **"What do you ask then, little one?"**

"My lord; I…I went into a dream this morning. It was Asuka's dream,"

Shinji told the pale king the whole story, and when he was finished Daniel unfolded his hands and perched them on the armrests of his throne.

**"I see…and your question?"**

Shinji licked his lips nervously before speaking, "I know she's had it before; why are you constantly giving her this nightmare?"

**"I don't,"**

Seeing the confusion in the boy's eyes, Dream rose from his throne and descended to him.

**"You see, Shinji…Asuka first received the dream at an early age, not long after her mother's body ended its existence. When the time came to move on, she refused to let go of the nightmare, chaining it to her ambition and her self-loathing.**

**"It is a sad thing for a child to allow itself only one dream, and a nightmare is the worst thing to keep and hold close. A nightmare flourishes where dreams would flee; it feeds on fear and self hatred. It is a parasite that young Asuka cultivates as she moves herself in life with only this nightmare in mind. She blames herself for her mother's death, and the only hope she can see for herself is to become a great pilot. **

**"The dream only hurts her, and someday it could destroy her, unless someone stops it."**

Shinji's mouth hung open at this explanation.

"W-well, why don't you stop it?!"

**"I would do so, Shinji, if she would let me,"** said the Dream King quietly, **"But she refuses to let go of the nightmare; she sees it as a…fuel, if you will…a fuel that drives her into her present state. **

**"She _can let go, young Shinji; but she cannot do it alone."_**

Between king and servant, there was a thoughtful silence for a few moments.

"I see," Shinji said softly before bowing, "Thank you, lord,"

The former Third Child then turned around and left the Throne Room.

And Dream gave a little smile…

It was unusual to have synch tests without Shinji's presence. Every so often one of the technicians would refer to Touji as "Shinji" and there would be a tense silence afterwards, during which scores would drop.

Touji had changed and left quickly to visit his sister, leaving the other two pilots alone on their side of the locker-room.

At first, there was quiet as they pulled themselves out of their plug-suits, but then Rei spoke.

"Pilot Souhryu?"

"Yeah, First?" replied Asuka, with no bite in her words.

"I wish…to speak with you about the incident at the park,"

Asuka huffed, "Yeah, well I fuckin' don't,"

Unperturbed, Rei pressed on, "You and I saw Ikari…or what looked like Ikari…"

"Goddammit, shut the hell up, Rei!" Asuka slammed her locker shut, only to open it again when she remembered she only had on her bra.

"I don't want to hear about it," she hissed as she began to dress more aggressively, "he's dead, that's it. He's dead and I don't have to wake his ass up in the morning, don't have to walk to school with him, don't have to…to…"Asuka bit her lip and drew blood, "…dance with him…"

The red-head abruptly sat down on the bench that sat in the middle of the aisle and placed her hands over her eyes.

"I'm not going to cry…I will _not fucking cry in front of you…"_

Rei stared at the girl for a moment, and then reached into her locker. Asuka heard a rustling sound before Rei apparently found what she was looking for. The redhead looked out through her fingers to see a pale hand grasping a laminated card.

It was Shinji's I.D. card.

Asuka's hands drifted slowly from her face and settled onto her knees. Then, tentatively—as if the object might vanish if she was too quick—she reached out and gently took it from the First Child's hand.

"Where…how…"

"Major Katsuragi summoned me to help her when Commander Ikari ordered Ikari-kun's possessions turned over to him. At one point she became emotional and left the room. I found this in his wallet and…I removed it," the albino frowned, "I…did not know…why,"

Asuka suddenly stood up and…

Rei's eyes widened to a bizarre size as the German girl hugged her. Not only was this the first time she had encountered such a display of emotion, but to receive the embrace from the Second Child…

"Thank you, Rei," whispered Asuka, "thank you so much,"

Shinji Ikari, the former pilot of Eva Unit-01, found himself standing before the door that led into Asuka's nightmare. The words of his master echoed in his mind.

**_She can_ let go, young Shinji; but she cannot do it alone.__**

On Earth, he had thought of himself as a coward, as useless, despite Misato's assertions to the contrary. Many times he questioned whether he was fighting just to receive her support, for her affection.

More questions and doubt rose in his mind. Should he mind his business? Stay away? Hide in the vast palace from what he thought was right?

He took a breath and opened the door…

Luke faded into the shadows as he was replaced in the spotlight by Sherman, who sat in front of the piano on a stool, a guitar hanging from straps around his enormous neck.

"Thank you, folks; I'm new in town and it's nice to see friendly faces in a strange world.

"My first number is about the sudden empty places in our life. You know them: these days, they seem to be popping up everywhere these days…"

_Shirts in the closet,_

_Shoes in the hall_

_Mama's in the kitchen,_

_baby__ and all_

_Everything is everything_

_Everything is everything_

_But you're missing_

_Coffee cups on the counter,_

_jackets__ on the chair_

_Papers on the doorstep,_

_but__ you're not there_

_Everything is everything_

_Everything is everything_

_But you're missing_

_Pictures on the nightstand,_

_TV's on in the den_

_Your house is waiting,_

_your__ house is waiting_

_For you to walk in_

_for__ you to walk in_

_But you're missing,_

_you're__ missing_

_You're missing, when I shut out the lights_

_You're missing, when I close my eyes_

_You're missing, when I see the sun rise_

_You're missing_

_Children are asking if it's alright_

_Will you be in our arms tonight?_

_Morning is morning,_

_the__ evening falls I got too much room in my bed,_

_too__ many phone calls_

_How's everything, everything?_

_Everything, everything_

_You're missing,_

_you're__ missing_

_God's drifting in Heaven,_

_devil's__ in the mailbox_

_I got dust on my shoes, nothing but teardrops…_


	12. Chapter Eleven

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER ELEVEN

_In which a week passes_

_A blow is struck_

_Love is remembered_

_And a door is opened once again…_

It was Moon Day, and the Prince of Stories granted audience to a blind thirteen-year old who was a prodigy with a piano.

He sat on a wooden throne in a chamber where well dressed penguins served them cider taken from the dream of an old farmer in Tennessee. When she had finished drinking her refreshment, she set down the glass (a souvenir from the coronation celebrations of Kaiser Wilhelm III), and offered to play for the Dream King.

In a soft voice, he agreed, and swiftly procured a grand piano from the nightmare of a nervous boy in Bismarck, North Dakota, who had a recital scheduled for the next night.

She sat and played, unrestricted by her inexperience in the Waking, and Dream sat and watched.

As she played, Dream felt an emotion bubbling in his heart, one that was both strange and familiar to him. He rubbed his emerald, and saw pale hands passing a lyre to a smiling little boy dressed in the white clothes of a Greek mortal. He understood then, but did nothing. 

When she finished, he thanked her and kissed her on the forehead before sending her into the Waking.

Beneath her blankets, Asuka Langely Souhryu dreamed.

She was so small. And when you're a small girl in a big world, you have to fight to be recognized. 

Asuka realized this at an early age. It came to her through a cloud of confusion when her mother doted on a doll. Asuka wanted to be special so her mother would stop talking to the little toy.

Yes, you and I both know that Kyoko Souhryu wasn't well, but _Asuka_ didn't know this. _Asuka_ was but a toddler, and it is foolish to believe she could understand anything about the human mind at such an age. But the very young are indeed wise in a fashion, and Asuka's mind connected a plan that would logically work, if this were a more pleasant world: if she did something great, her mother would come back to normal and hug her and love her forever and ever.

One day, Asuka found out that someday, when the time was right, she would be a hero, like in the comic books, and she would save the whole wide world. She had gained the title Second Child. _Ha! Let's see that doll do that!_

And so she went home after the tests, brimming with excitement, knowing how proud and happy Mama would be.

Up, up to the house she went, a house that was a grim caricature of her old home in Brandenburg, mounted on a steep unwelcoming hill. Asuka would have realized that something was wrong had she the mind of her Waking self, but she was in Nightmare Country now and rationality meant nothing here.

She kicked off her shoes—mindful of her mother's wishes for a clean house—and raced up the stairs. As her little legs took her to the top, she almost toppled a vase as she turned a corner into the darkened hallway that led to her mama's room. 

"Mama! Mama! I'm a pilot! Mama!"

Her excited cries echoed through the hallway as she ran towards her destination…only to smash bodily into a pair of tan-colored pants.

Dazed, she looked into the nervous deep blue eyes of a teenaged boy. He licked his lips, and gave a quick look around the hallway before saying, "Hi, Asuka,"

_Who is this man? Does Mama know him?_

_Shinji…Oh God its Shinji…Shinji_

_Where's Mama?_

_No, this isn't right he's dead he's dead he's dead Mama's dead…_

Asuka's face showed a variety of emotions, from fear to astonishment, suspicion to recognition, but it was mostly confusion.

"Excuse me," she suddenly said, before moving to continue on her journey toward the end of the hallway.

"Wait! Asuka, don't…I mean…"

The little redhead turned toward the sheepish boy, now looking even more uncomfortable as she stared at him expectantly. 

"Well, what is it?" she demanded impatiently, having no idea why this boy was being such a pest.

"Asuka," he murmured, "y-your mother is…dead,"

_What…no, no she isn't!_

_Yes…_

_NO!_

_I know…remember…_

"Shut up! Don't you dare say that! Go away!!"

And she ran toward her mother's room…to face the truth.

On True's Day, Dream of the Endless left his kingdom to visit two acquaintances of times long past—an exiled devil and a banished angel (of the more benevolent kind).

The two lived as lovers on another Earth, and they had been tasked to watch over another angel as she slept for a century, awakening when her lost love would be reincarnated.

After paying respect to the sleeping lady, he dined with the two exiles, making polite conversation with them. When the time came for the two to sleep, he ignored their protests and sprinkled his sand into their eyes.

He left the angel in the former devil's close embrace, pausing to stare at a tree for a few moments before going home.

This time, the boy was in the hallway waiting for her. She stopped a few feet away from Shinji Ikari, looking up at him with a glare. 

"Get outta my way," she commanded testily. Her mother was at the end of the hallway, waiting for the good news.

_Dead…dead…___

"She's dead, Asuka," whispered Shinji, kneeling to face her, "She's gone…you have to accept it."

_Gone…dead…accept?_

"Get out! Leave me alone!"

"_Listen to me_," Shinji barked, surprising even himself, "Asuka…Dre—my lord told me that you have to let go of this nightmare. I—I think th-that if you need to l-let go of this nightmare, you have to let go of…"

"_SHUT UP!_"

The scream sent the boy onto his posterior, and the girl stepped on his stomach on her way through Destiny's Garden.

On Odin's Day, the King of Dreams visited a village that bordered on an African desert. He briefly spoke to a storyteller who was tending to a group of sick children. Though the storyteller did not know where they came from, he told the children many tales that night and they slept peacefully for the first time in many days.

The Oneiromancer then walked across the desert, deep in thought. His bare toe hit against a piece of green glass, and he stared at it for a moment before picking it up.

As he regarded it, a cauldron of great shame, pain, and personal hatred within his heart bubbled over and he crushed the glass in his hand.

As he watched the shards tumble into the sand, he wished he knew why…

Shinji stood at the door now. He and the girl now stared at each other in the Sohryu entryway, which was twisted by Nightmare into an extremely foreboding room with a ceiling that was so high up that it was obscured by thick darkness.

_Again…again…___

_Dead…here…_

_Mama?___

_Shinji.___

_Gone…here…_

"I'm doing this for your own good," he said finally.

"I have to see Mama," was Asuka's reply, moving forward purposefully.

He grabbed her arm…

_They are dressed in humiliating leotards and loose shirts; he accidentally hits her arm as the music begins._

A shocked Shinji reached up to touch the bruise on his cheek. For a moment, the redhead he had known was there and had struck him.

The little girl stared at him, her right hand clenched in a small fist. Her eyes darted between the hand and the boy's battered face, unable to believe what she had just done yet remembering when her action was commonplace.

And she ran up the stairs…but she only walked down the lonely hall, unsure of herself, to her mother's room.

On Thirst Day, Daniel summoned Matthew, and they toured the skerries together, counting each and every one.

They then lunched in the dream of a middle aged man in Dayton, Ohio, who was dreaming of the first date he had with his wife, who had just been committed to an asylum that morning after she tried to kill him with a carving fork.

When Asuka Langely Sohryu entered the house, it occurred to her that something was wrong.

Her little legs took her up the stairs, and when she turned, he was in the hallway.

"A-Asuka?" he asked softly.

_Who is this…?_

_He is above me, risking his life. His Eva has my hand…the Eva's hand…why…?_

"I want to ask you something," he said softly, "Have you ever opened any of these other doors?"

Asuka blinked at him. What a strange question…why would she open any other doors when she knew exactly which room her mother would be in?

Shinji did not wait for an answer. He reached over to a nearby door and opened it.

Kyoko Zeppelin hung from the ceiling; the doll lay beneath it, its head torn off.

"Mama?" whispered Asuka quietly. She would have tried to enter the room, but Shinji had walked further up and opened another door. He then gently guided her to it.

The same scene: Mama, doll, rope, room.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, turning toward him with tears beginning to form in her sky-blue eyes, "What happened to her? Why…?"

"I didn't do anything," he said, his calm voice laced with nervousness, "Asuka…I think you're doing this to yourself."

"_What?_"

"Asuka," Shinji bit his lip, searching for the right words; they came, "You—you keep having this nightmare, okay? You don't like it; you keep crying every time you have it, but you won't let go of it.

"You—you're addicted to it, like a drug. It hurts you, but you go through it. And it affects you, drags you down when you're awake."

Silence. 

_Truth.___

"Damn it, Asuka; I've seen it killing you! You hurt everybody else when you can't hurt yourself anymore for the day; everywhere you turn you want to see the world shaped by your nightmare, so you can be a tragic hero. You'll never get anywhere if all you want to go is here," he said gesturing toward the scene beyond—…

A loud thump interrupted him and he turned to look at her. Then everything was black and scrambled white, before Asuka woke up in her bed.

She climbed out of bed, and slid her door open to find Misato shivering against the wall down the hallway. A quick jog took her beside the trembling major. Instinctively, her arms went around the older woman as Misato began to speak shakily.

"I-I-I j-j-just wanted-s-s-som-um-um wa-water,"

Asuka wasn't able to sleep after she helped the major back to bed.

Fire's Day saw the Dream King crafting dreams and nightmares for hours.

He fashioned a beautiful doll to accompany another as they dove into the churning nightmares of a traumatized child in Tibet.

From a nearby fog he created the Ghost of Whispers, and sent it to a five year old in Oregon who was hiding a terrible secret.

And in his throne room, he summoned a globe into his hand, and watched the unfolding events.

When she entered the house, he wasn't there, in either the entryway or the hall.

At first, her instinct was to go immediately to her mother's room…

_She's deadAsukagoneAsuka_

_Shinji…_

She stopped in front of one door. It occurred to her that there was something strange about this door, as if it gave a light that she could barely see. "See"? No, that wasn't right; it was as if it could appear only to the back of her mind, compensating for the absence of real light.

For a few moments, her head turned between the strange door and the path to her mother's room.

_…to yourself…___

She reached for the knob.

_I am coming._

_Through the license granted me by the One named **I AM** I descend upon this world._

_Every instinct, every thing taught to me by my elders tells me to stop, that this is wrong._

_But I stood proudly with the few of my brothers who would allow their feet to touch base earth for this most blessed cause._

_If I succeed, Humanity will suffer no more._

_If I fail, another of my brethren will come._

_I am Bardiel._

_I am coming._


	13. Chapter Twelve

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER 12

_In which a lost dream is found_

_Asuka__ punches the dead_

_A Messenger arrives_

_And a god comes to rest _

It's a world that can easily be mistaken for a corner of Hell.

When you go there—and you will go there sometime in your life, though you probably wouldn't recognize it—the mist curls around your legs, and unseen rats crawl over and under your feet.

If they like you, perhaps they will chew on your flesh.

There are many mirrors in this place, or perhaps they are windows?

Could they be both?

But you won't see your own reflection when you look into these panes of glass (or perhaps you will); you'll see a mother in Ethiopia, her child sucking desperately at a bosom devoid of any nourishment.

Here, in a slide-by that has a webbed series of cracks emerging from a small hole, a man who once held the American Dream in his grasp stumbles down an alleyway that reeks of human piss and garbage. He has spent his last few coins to pay for a bottle of whiskey. The effects of cocaine have vanished from his system long ago.

The police will arrive soon, to drag him to a jail so that he may be punished for slitting the throat of the little girl he had stolen the coins from.

There, in that octagonal portal with the frosted rose in the middle; a one-armed veteran has discovered that his grandson is homosexual. But that is not his concern: he has walked across his cornfield to find the boy lying in a ditch by the road, his head caved in by a baseball-bat. In three weeks, he will spit in the faces of two young men who were once his neighbors, damning them to hell for their crime.

The Realm of Despair; it will leave a scar on your heart.

A scar carved by her hook.

The white marble was cold against Asuka's feet as she uncertainly stepped up to the huge oak door and opened it to reveal a more brightly lit hallway**.**

The German redhead had seen many strange sights in her short life, but what lay beyond the door stopped her cold: a vast mirror made up the entire wall opposite her, showing her and…dozens of people of all races walking through the hall, dressed in all manner of clothing, and seemingly minding their own business.

_But there was no one in the hallway but Asuka._

She looked from left to right, and then stepped closer to the mirror—to her reflection.

"_Gott__ un himmel, what is this?" she murmured._

Somehow she was not surprised when the reflection answered, "We are the ghosts of abandoned dreams,"

"Abandoned dreams? I don't understand,"

The reflection shrugged, though Asuka did not.

"We are the dreams and ambitions that every Dreamer has when they are young. Some of us go on, and some of us fade into ghosts."

Asuka raised an eyebrow and peered at the bored-looking apparition.

"Oh? And just what are_ you _a ghost of?"

The reflection glowed for a moment and then revealed itself as wearing a white lab-coat and glasses.

"What the hell…?"

The reflection almost seemed sad as she said, "You once dreamed of being a great scientist, like your mother. You admired her…until one day, she came home and saw only that doll…"

_The head is torn off, stuffing spurting out onto the carpet…_

Asuka's hair waved about as she shook her head.

"No…no, I don't want to hear this shit!" 

She turned and ran down the hallway, leaving her reflection to stare after her.

"Goodbye, Asuka; it was nice to see you again…"

And she was gone.

The girl walked quietly down the grand hallway, past dozens of unremarkable doors. Each of them had a golden plate inscribed with what appeared to be names, though they were the oddest ones she had ever seen.

_The Cricket-translator…the Duke of Ink…who the fuck are these people?___

She heard a shrill whistle, one with a jolly and proletarian tune and the sound of some liquid sloshing about in a bucket. Around the corner came a scarecrow, contentedly swinging a bucket back and forth with a mop slung across his left soldier.

As he moved past the astonished Asuka he muttered, "How ya doin', toots?" 

"_What _did you just call me?"

Mervyn Pumpkinhead turned around and raised a non-existent eyebrow as he replied innocently, "What? I just greeted ya—what's the problem?"

"You called me 'toots!' _That's the problem, dummkopf!_"

The scarecrow raked a green glove over the skin of his head as a thoughtful expression came over his "face".

"Huh, funny,"

"_What?_"

"You remind me of a gal one of the guys told me about. Red hair, blue eyes, nice rack…"

Asuka unleashed a string of curse words at Mervyn, including some that he had never heard before.

"_Who the fuck told you that!?_"

"The new guy…Shinji Ikari…"

Mervyn could almost see sparks flashing from her grinding teeth as she demanded the former pilot's location.

"He's on book patrol right now, but his rooms' down the hall, to the left if you wanna wait fer' him."

The amused scarecrow watched the vengeful girl dash down the hallway. He grinned as he lit a cigarette and continued his walk to the Shrine of San's Forest. On the way, he realized that Shinji hadn't said anything like that at all about Asuka. Oh well…

It was a copy of Fred Saberhagen's _Ice in the Veins_ and Shinji had it cornered in the Nursery of Possibilities. The place was a massive chamber where women who wished to be mothers dreamed of potential children and their futures. 

Carefully maneuvering beside the crib of a Chilean boy (who would be taking the oath as president of his country later that night), Shinji shifted his wriggling bag to the floor beside his right leg as he observed the book leaning innocently against the wall. His net was carefully kept out of visual range, ready to snap forward when Shinji calculated a plan of attack.

When he had first heard of this job, the former Third Child had little expectation that it would be as difficult as it was. As Lucien explained it, some "fool" had forgotten to close one of the library's doors and a few books had managed to get out before he discovered the opening. And the books were more aggressive than they looked: two had jumped him in the Hall of Mannequins, adding to his already heightened jumpiness in that particular section of the castle. 

As stealthily as he could manage, he crept past the cradles, staying out of view. Finally, he came to the last corner, took a deep breath, and lunged…

"Well, that explains the great caterwaul I heard a while ago," Lucien said nonchalantly.

Shinji looked at him helplessly while behind him a pirate stumbled past the open door murmuring, "Babies…arr…babies everywhere…arr…flying through the air…arrr…"

The Chief Librarian held up the bag and swatted it with the handle of the net.

"See what mischief you do? I think you need a week in the 'return' box," he smiled at the bedraggled and bruised boy, "Thank you, Shinji; you can go back to your apartment if you wish,"

The boy wordlessly bowed and left.

The door opened at a single turn; it apparently wasn't locked. 

The girl stepped from a hallway of marble into an apartment that looked like the builders had secretly built an ordinary group of rooms in the magnificent palace and then run away giggling in the night. The floor was green carpet with elegant white designs traced across it. A doorway led into a small kitchen, where a recently opened box full of teabags lay open on the counter. Asuka picked one up and looked at the label.

_What the hell's a snozberry?_

She dropped the teabag back into the box and walked through another portal into the living room. A couch sat at one wall, with a coffee table sitting before it. A large television sat in the corner facing a dead fireplace. Between these two things was a large window.

A few books sat on the table, with one lying open beside a cup of tea.

_He was interrupted_ she thought, finally feeling a small pang of guilt at intruding on a private place. Asuka turned the book toward her and read.

_"I'd like to get away from earth awhile_

_And then come back to it and begin over._

_May no fate willfully misunderstand me_

_And half grant what I wish and snatch me away_

_Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:_

_I don't know where it's likely to go better."_

_So…the baka likes Robert Frost?_

She suddenly heard a slow, small crashing sound and looked up at a painting that hung over the couch. It was a painting of a long, white beach bordering on an expansive blue sea.

The apartment door opened, and Asuka heard a pair of footsteps at the entryway.

"Is someone here? Matthew? Mervyn?"

The footsteps padded towards the living room.

Here's the wind-up…

"Lord Dre—?"

…and the pitch…

From his newfound seat on the floor, Shinji rubbed his jaw in shock as he beheld a sight he hadn't seen for weeks: a pissed off Teutonic redhead smirking in triumph rubbing her fist.

"_Gutentag_, pervert; what's this I hear about having a great rack?"

"A-Asuka?! How…?"

"The scarecrow told me. He told me some interesting things," she cracked her knuckles, "Now, would you like to be kicked upstairs or pounded downstairs?"

"_Mervyn__ told you?!" Shinji yelped, holding up his hands in defense, "I've never told him anything! Honest! I just said something about you being a redhead! I—I…"_

"Really?" she growled, peering at him with suspicious eyes. The girl could tell that he was surprised—if not terrified—at seeing her in his apartment…perhaps he really_ was_ telling the truth.

Shinji, for that matter, _was_ telling the truth—and was horrified, for the simple reason that Asuka was currently garbed in nothing more than her sleeping clothes, which consisted of a T-shirt from Germany and some…interesting red panties. Thus, Shinji desperately tried to keep his eyes from roaming so that Asuka would not notice her current state and promptly knock him through the next nine walls into the Knight of Clouds' apartment. 

"Very well," she said slowly, "so if…wait…"

Shinji balled up into a defensive position, waiting for the blows to rain down upon his head. Nothing happened, and he dared a peek.

She was staring at him, leaning over from the waist as those light blue eyes examined him carefully, gently.

"You're dead…" she murmured, a hand came up and covered her mouth, "_Mein__ Gott, you're dead and I just punched you…oh __Gott, oh __Gott…"_

"It's okay, Asuka, really!" Shinji suddenly got up, trying to calm her, "It doesn't hurt as bad as it looked! See?" He tapped hard on his bruised cheek, wincing visibly while trying to keep a smile on his face.

"Wait…if you're here, I'm either dreaming or dead; which is it?"

"Uh, that would be the former," Shinji replied, scratching the back of his neck, "I guess Mervyn told you how to get here, huh?"

"Mervyn?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the name.

"Yeah," he said as he held up his hands around his head as if the pumpkin were there, "You know: the scarecrow. He's a nice guy, but he's…well, really weird."

Asuka huffed and closed an eye as she glanced around the room.

"Where are we anyway? Heaven? Hell? Limbo?"

Shinji coughed before speaking: "It's called the Dreaming, the place where Dreams are born and nurtured into reality,"

"God, that sounds dorky," the redhead sniggered, "Sounds like someone who's read too many comic books,"

Shinji bit his lip as she marched over to the window, flinging it open and surveying the landscape visible from his place in the castle. His room's view had shifted—as it often moved to the Dream King's whim—to a large garden where a massive spoon rested with a huge cherry perched on its end.

"Who made that?" she queried, gesturing toward the sculpture, "It looks familiar…"

"Lord Dream," Shinji replied, edging closer to her, "He's created everything here; he's…well, he's my new master…"

Asuka's fingers gripped the window sill as she made a quick glance back toward the former Third Child. Master; he had said the word so easily, so comfortably. This from a boy who became melancholy at the mention of the Commander, who remained "Father" to him even after so many years spent in exile from his immediate family. 

"'Lord Dream'?"

"He's the king here. One of the Endless, this family that rules the universe,"

Dream. This had to be a dream. Shinji in a huge palace, talking about things that were right out of a total dork's imagination and calling people "Master" and her wearing nothing but her sleeping clothes; it didn't add up.

Asuka stopped. She put her university-educated brain to work and soon realized: she was almost naked in front of the boy she had habitually bounced against the sides of their apartment for being a pervert.

"_Hey! What the hell?!"_

Shinji would have wet his pants if he wasn't so terrified. The redhead's hair flared out as she lifted her divine fist…

"…—Raymond Boatman once again denied that the United States Air Force had anything to do with the explosion over Cuba that took the lives of over fifteen technicians associated with the Evangelion program. However, President Fowler…"

Blue eyes snapped open, then blinked a few times at the news program on the television in Misato's living room. Dressed in her tee shirt and shorts, leaning up against the seat of the couch, it took a moment to gather where she was and why she was there.

The fist was still clenched when Asuka awoke. She held up her hand and spread it, flexing it a few times as she stared at it.

"Only a dream…right?"

Kaji Ryouji was in a decidedly black mood as he slouched in his bar chair. Difficulties in his last assignment had kept him away longer than expected and when he _did come back, he wasn't quite ready to start flipping off to the NERV and SEELE giants yet. _

First, he wanted a drink. No, a few drinks.

Not enough courage had been produced to make a call to Katsuragi's residence yet. He didn't feel like trying to explain himself to his onetime lover.

_"What; couldn't you tear yourself away from your fucking job for an hour? Couldn't you spare a fucking minute of one fucking day to say goodbye to one boy?"_

"Being a bit hard on yourself, aren't you?"

_Shit, must have said that last part aloud, _he thought to himself as the red-haired _gaijin set down a martini in front of the special operative._

"Sorry, uh…" he looked at the man's nametag, "…Luke. It's been one hell of a month."

 Luke shrugged; maneuvering a bowl of pretzels over to his grateful customer's scooping hand. 

"Not a problem, my friend; I've been there before,"

Kaji smirked, "Bad times?"

"No," Luke smiled slightly, "Hell,"

That earned a chuckle from the half-shaven man, who missed the brief bloom of flame that emerged from Luke's eyes.

"But enough about me; what has brought you down?"

The restaurant was mostly empty this early in the morning, but Luke had filled Kaji's order without comment. The spy shrugged and scratched his neck.

"If you really must know…a friend died recently,"

"Heard that one before," Luke replied.

"Yeah, but…this friend…he wasn't even what I'd call a friend…hell, I think this the first time I've called him that.

"He led a pretty shitty life; never had much fun as a kid, mom's dead, and dad's a deadbeat. Wouldn't be much of a surprise if you walk in one day and find him swinging by a rope. 

"But he was a good guy, even though life kept kicking him in the balls; this world's the worse for losing him."

Luke nodded before pouring himself a beer, "There have been a few like that; you get the feeling they live only to remind the rest of humanity to actually live.

"Here now, a toast: to old and new friends, to Shinji Ikari, and the devil's dues…"

"Hear-hear," Kaji's martini rocked as he clinked it against Luke's glass. They then downed both their respective drinks, Kaji reaching the last of his before realizing…

"Hey, how do you know…?"

Luke's glass was behind the bar, and the door into the back was wide open. __

Then the sirens wailed.

Shinji had met the Guardians on his first day in the Dreaming. Gryffin, the winged lion with the head of an eagle; Hippogriff—the magnificent winged horse that Shinji had at first called "Pegasus"; and the Wyvern, a dragon-like creature that seemed to be the leader of the group, if there was such a position. The three mostly spent their days talking; gossip, arguments, and philosophy all reigned over the gates into the Dream King's home.

For some reason, the boy took a liking to sitting out with the three massive beasts at lunch and talking with them; the guardians voiced no objections, and so the boy would climb up onto the Hippogriff's marble perch and watch the three talk, rarely speaking (although when he had once spoken up without being spoken to, and the creatures seemed pleased). His seat—a ledge halfway up to the Hippogriff allowed him both the ability to see who was speaking and a splendid view of the Dreaming.

"…Titania just issued another reward,"

"Really," snorted the Wyvern as he rubbed his neck against the wall behind him, "for anyone who can give her the best orgy, I surmise?"

Gryffin sniffed as best his beak could allow, "For anyone who finds her husband; enough gold to fill the receiver's home, apparently,"

"Titania is the Queen of Faerie," Hippogriff whispered to Shinji. The friendliest of the three guardians, the massive flying horse did his best to keep the boy up with what they were talking about.

"Huh?" Shinji asked, looking up from his lunch bag—that he had been staring at for three minutes, "Oh…thanks,"

The Hippogriff frowned—as much as a winged horse could, anyway—and leaned down closer, his left nostril snorting lowly in Shinji's direction.

"Is there something wrong, Shinji? You seem more…withdrawn today."

Shinji sighed and shook his head, "It's nothing. Really; I'm okay."

Meanwhile, the conversation between the Gryffin and the Wyvern continued.

"I wonder if anyone will bother to even try: she'd probably try to give them maple leafs or something enchanted to appear as gold."

"Alas, the lady may be honest this time around; it is my understanding that without the High King Auberon, her throne is in danger," Gryffin declared.

"May our lord forgive me if I fail to shed tears over the downfall of…" the Wyvern stopped and suddenly drew himself up to his great height, his eyes flashing green, "…someone approaches."

Major of Special Operations Forces Misato Katsuragi, Chief of Operations of the U.N. Organization NERV and holder of the Order of the Rising Sun, third class, smoothed out the last undignified creases on her jacket before stepping into the Command Center of NERV. The shaking had decreased, though it had taken every drop of willpower she had to stop herself from holding up a bar at gunpoint and shriek for all the booze within the district.

"_Report_," she barked, girding herself for the coming battle.

"We have a confirmed Angel heading this way; no visual sighting yet but the U.N. is sending up every recon aircraft they have," Maya Ibuki called out.

Misato heard the commander's platform rise behind her and turned to face them. She was surprised: Commander Ikari appeared disheveled; his beard seemed to have grown out slightly; the beginnings of a moustache were present beneath his nose, and—for once—his glasses were slid down his nose, allowing part of his eyes to be seen. 

As always, Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki was beside his immediate superior, every now and then blinking his eyes in a worried glance toward the Commander in Chief, NERV-Japan. The Vice-Commander cleared his throat and ordered the major to report.

"We have a confirmed Blue-type coming at us, sir; we're trying to get more info on it but…"

"Major! We have a visual from the U.N. recon squadron, putting it through now,"

Lieutenant Aoba tapped a few keys and spoke, "Orion Flight, do you read?"

"This is Orion-one, sir, I copy,"

"This is NERV; can you give us a visual on the Angel,"

"Yessir, activating transmitter,"

A massive holo-screen appeared before the command platforms showing the colossal body of the 14th Angel moving toward Tokyo-3.

"There doesn't seem to be any visible weaponry," said Maya. 

"Orion-lead, this is NERV Command, can you get us a closer look?"

"Copy that, Nerv Command, we're moving in; Orion-two, Orion-three take up flanking positions; Orion-four, take five and six, maneuver around."

"Roger; five, six, we'll go round by way of Tujikana District; use the Second Bank of Kyoto building as a hinge,"

The excellent maneuvering abilities of the Draculesti Aviation AHC-16 VTOL-craft showed as the flight split up to take their positions. To the Angel's right was Orion-one's group and to the left was Orion-four.

"Still no sign of weaponry," said Maya, "Maybe it has…"

"Orion-four, I think I saw something flash…"

The pilot did not get to finish his report. A long shining blade swept out of the left shoulder of the 14th Angel, curving in the air toward Orion-four. The craft was still in motion, and the blade slashed through the left wing of the AHC-16, sending the engine spinning into the trees below. The other craft in the group fled while Orion-four began lolling to its unsupported side.

"Mayday! Mayday! Ejecting now!"

The cockpit's window blasted off, flipping away and descending into shards as it impaled itself on a tree. The pilot and the weapons systems operator rocketed off into the air, thankfully away from the Angel's direction.

"Status of the Children?" Misato asked, shaking off the shock of the incident.

"They just arrived, heading toward the lockers,"

"ETA of the Angel?"

"MAGI calculates it to be twenty minutes,"

Shinji's bite of ham, mustard, and another unidentifiable but wonderful substance immediately gulped down his throat as he turned his eyes toward the approaching figure.

Were he on Earth, Shinji would have mistaken the man as a hobo. He wore a tattered black cloak and a beat up old hat with a large brim. In his right hand he carried—and leaned on—a tall wooden staff.

"Hola," he called up to the guardians.

"Hail to you, sir," the Hippogriff stretched its neck down to look at the stranger closely, "What brings you here?"

"I would speak with the Dreamweaver," responded the grim looking fellow, "there is something I wish to…discuss with him.

"You know who I am: I am the Gallows God, ruler of Asgard, father of Thor; I am Odin One-eye, and I come as your monarch's friend,"

The Wyvern snaked his head closer to the now introduced god, who did not even flinch when the massive beast sniffed him.

"When you came here last, you declared our lord your enemy,"

A thin hand came up and waved dismissively, "In truth, I did; but I had no animosity toward him. He had been tricked, and that trick cost him his life and my house a good friend.

"He is not my enemy; my mead is his to drink and my meat is his to eat. I have only come to talk."

The Wyvern drew up his head, reptilian eyes still on Odin.

"Our lord is not currently in residence, Lord Odin. May I recommend…"

"No. I would speak with him. I _must speak with him."_

"Yet, he is not here," said the Hippogriff, standing up on his perch and spreading his wings majestically, "I _am sorry, lord, but Lord Dream of the Endless is simply unavailable,"_

Odin turned to look at the winged horse and…

"Who are you?" he demanded, pointing at Shinji.

The boy, horrified at being recognized in something that obviously didn't involve him, tried to back away.

"This is Shinji Ikari, Lord Odin; he is the newest member of the palace staff,"

"Shinji Ikari?" Odin's single eye widened slightly, then became blank again, "Very well; I will speak with _him then."_

"_What?_" the boy cried.

"Urm…Lord Odin, could you not wait for our lord to return? We could send a messenger to him and he would not keep you waiting,"

Odin shook his head gravely at the Hippogriff's words, "No; I won't trouble him. I will be satisfied to talk with the boy,"

The Hippogriff uneasily turned his head to Shinji and seemed to shrug in helplessness.

Shinji sighed, and began to climb laboriously down from the ledge.

Five minutes before the Angel arrived, and the pilots were suited up and listening to the Major's plans.

"The main armament of the Angel seems to be these blades emerging from its shoulders," Misato said, tapping the recon-photo, "they seem to be very flexible. They're also very long, the damn thing took down one of the U.N. planes half a mile away.

"This is my plan: Touji, you and Asuka will take up positions on either side of the Angel while Rei gains its attention with an apparent assault.

"When the Angel is engaged in our deception, you two will fire your individual positron cannons at the Angel, forcing the Angel to divert it's AT-Field in three directions. The laws of physics say that _one of you guys will be able to smash through one wall._

"If not, a bomber is now entering orbit near Tokyo-3. If you guys don't break through first, that bomber will toss one N2 bomb into the Angel's weakest point."

The Norse King of Gods had bid Shinji walk with him along the Shores of Nightmare. And now the former Third Child walked nervously alongside the one-eyed deity.

"How old are you, boy?" Odin asked with some difficulty before coughing.

"Uh, fourteen, Lord Odin,"

"Fourteen," mused the Gallows God, "and you have killed? Killed the so-called 'Messengers of God'?"

Shinji's eyes widened and he looked at Odin in amazement; not only had he known what the boy had done in life, but also had known the names of the strange beings that the former Third Child had fought.

"It is troubling—nay, terrifying—what is happening on the mortal world. My ravens tell me of machines that are said to mock the Creator; of blasphemous acts taking place within a great fortress."

Odin suddenly stopped and looked out across the dark waters to the Skerries. He took a heavy breath and turned back to the boy.

"Do you know where gods come from, child?"

Shinji silently shook his head.

"They come from here, from dreams; formed and shaped when mortals dream of superior beings shaping and forming their universe when in fact _they_ give us life. Our stories were written by mortal dreams, our battles fought with swords forged on the fires of human belief, our children were born by the human mind.

"And when they stop believing, fading away into history, we die. We come back here and vanish."

Odin pursed his lips, and looked into Shinji's eyes.

The boy had never seen a sadder expression as the King of Asgard spoke on.

"Perhaps it is for the best…"

The interception was taking place outside the city. The power packs—each the size of a cargo truck—were carried in one hand, the rifles in another. 

"All right, stooge, pay attention; watch a pro work,"

"Yeah, whatever," Touji muttered, "Let's just remember there are people down there, 'kay?"

The two took up positions behind taller buildings, waiting for the Angel to appear.

It didn't take long.

"Here it comes; Rei, move into position!"

"Yes, ma'am."

Rei moved forward, leveling her huge assault rifle and opening fire.

A single bolt of light erupted from the Angel's head and slashed toward Unit-00. Rei, quick to react, ducked into another street and the beam hit a skyscraper behind her, a cloud of dust surrounding the hole it created and more debris following it as it exited the building into oblivion.

Misato's curse reverberated throughout NERV. As if trying to make up, Rei poked her gun out from an alley—shoving a garbage bin out of the space and into a nearby parked car in the process—and fired another volley of shots. The Angel's blades suddenly whipped out of its sockets and sliced through the buildings blocking its path. The structures either collapsed on and around the blades or slid off of their positions into the streets below, kicking even more dust and debris into the air.

"_Asuka__, Touji, now!"_

Twin beams of light hit the AT-Field at once, forcing the Angel to divert its defenses to two other directions. 

"The back is weakened; tell the bomber to hit the bastard," the Major barked at Maya.

"Yes, ma'am!"

A few minutes later, a huge flower of flame erupted at the Angel's location.

"Asuka, Touji, are you ready for another shot?"

"I am, Misato,"

"Then shoot the damn thing, Asuka!"

The redhead pulled the trigger…

"What do you mean?"

"Who weeps for us, boy? Who weeps?" Odin hissed, before exploding in coughs. Shinji stepped back as a glob of blood hit the sand. The Gallows God wiped off his mouth and then continued his dark conversation.

"Have we not been there when you called? Did our scrolls and books and words comfort you in your darkest times? Your Bible, Koran, Torah, Adi Granth, Book of the Dead, Mahabarata, and Lao-tzu: were they not with you always?

"I am not complaining; I have no right to. My followers are gone, buried beneath the snows of the north. But we were left behind, a child whose parents forgot…"

Shinji shivered at that last sentence.

"We, the Gods of Asgard, have survived on slivers of belief that all mortals have deep within. But in this new era," Odin drew his cloak closer, "It is so cold. Here, the beliefs that you mortals held are abandoned. The Gods are neglected; the temples and churches are empty.

"I…cannot live on another century,"

Odin coughed again into his hand, spattering it with blood.

"The decaying began some time ago; nothing was left of the belief; no tribute but some…book with pictures. And now even that is gone, and my degradation is accelerating,

"I am not strong enough. The end will come today,"

Shinji's eyes widened as he stared at the one-eyed god. He was currently moving toward the dark water.

"What?! Why?"

"I have told you. There is nothing left to support me,"

Though he was by nature afraid of angering the entity, the boy reached out a shaking hand toward the god's cloak and touched it. The Gallows God whipped around toward the boy, and he cringed away. 

"Please, child," Odin murmured, "I am tired,"

Shinji could only watch as the Lord of Asgard moved into the water, further and further. Soon he tossed away his staff and moved further into the surf.

When the water came up to his chest, he paused and turned around. He lifted a hand; Shinji heard fluttering on either side of him and turned his head slightly to see a raven alighting on his left shoulder.

"A gift," Odin called, "for walking with an old man,"

Shinji watched, frozen, as the Gallows God moved further and further into the water.

And then he was gone.

The wind blew; a cyclopean bird flew overhead. No clap of thunder or wailing skies. Shinji was slightly disappointed.

_"So, what do we do now, Master?"_


	14. Chapter Thirteen

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER THIRTEEN

By Red Star

_In which the First Murderer strikes again,_

_Teenagers are unable to consume alcohol,_

_War is threatened,_

_And Shinji learns a lesson._

Something that was there was there no longer. It was a tickle at the end of his mind, as a microscopic parcel of dream-essence returned to the Dreaming—and therefore to him, for the Dreaming is as much an extension of Dream as it is a plane of existence. 

Dream of the Endless had been sitting on the steps of the new United States Capitol in the post-Second Impact American capital of St. Paul when it happened, tossing birdseed for the pigeons that had gathered on the marble steps. He had paused, to contemplate the meaning of Odin's death, before vanishing back into his world of impossibilities.

Cain was waiting for him. Dressed in his khaki military-like tunic and black shirt, the man was nervously pulling on his wild red whiskers as the Dream King emerged from the Waking into his throne room.

"My lord, I have been waiting for you for some time now!" cried the rather wild-eyed antagonist as Daniel began walking toward a door on the left side of the massive chamber, "I would like that in the future you would…"

**"That I would _what, Son of Adam?"_** Dream said as two red-colored points of light suddenly appeared in his black eyes.

"Uh, that…you might…take it upon your…most worthy and exalted self to…perhaps leave a note on your door…or something…" Cain muttered nervously while pulling at his black turtleneck's collar.

**"I see,"** the red light vanished, to be replaced by a pair of glowing white stars, **"No, Cain; I believe that would be most inconvenient. In the future, consult Lucian or the Gatekeepers if you cannot find me."**

"If that is your will, sire,"

Daniel's long coat shifted into a long white kimono-like robe that had a long gold chain of ivy woven into its rim and lapel. His arms and legs were covered with rows of white wrappings, leaving only his fingers exposed. The emerald—in a smaller, thinner form—hung from a thin golden chain against his lily-white, hairless chest. 

**"Now, what do you want, Cain? There are…other matters I need to attend to…"**

The man pulled on his turtleneck again, less confident than before his lord had returned.

"Err…yes, my lord, it concerns your orders about the gargoyles."

**"What of them?"** the Prince of Stories asked, as he tucked his hands into their opposite sleeves.

"You know that Gregory's the best…um…stud in all the Dreaming! He looks forward to this season all year! Will you not please…?"

**"I have made my decision, Cain; Koenma himself petitioned me,"**

"Koenma! Sire, the little brat's barely off the tit; centuries old and still carrying around that damn…"

**"Enough, Cain.**** My decision stands; as before, I have other matters to attend to…"**

The doors swung open, and the King of Dreams swept out…into a puddle of blood.

The stars went into cold, laser-like points as Daniel's eyes followed the pools to a bloated, broken body with limbs that rested in unnatural positions. One of the corpse's hands lay twisted onto his back, the thumb and middle-finger's bones snapped into directions opposite from their intended places.

Beads of sweat emerged from Cain's skin as Dream's impassive face slowly turned to give him a cold stare. A voice that sent shivers down his spine, a voice unlike any he had heard in almost twenty years, came from those ivory lips.

**"Take your brother home and put him to bed. Then clean up this mess."**

"Immediately, lord!" Cain almost sprinted to his brother's side, grabbing a shattered arm and pulling roughly on it.

**"And Cain?"******

"Yes, lord?" the murderer queried, looking up from his muttered curses toward his brother's corpse.

Two stars blazed so powerfully that the light reflected off of Cain's sweaty forehead.

**"_Never do this in my home again." _**Dream shed the blood that had soaked into his foot-wrappings back onto the floor and stalked off.****

"Welcome to an evening at Rising Star!"

The man who called himself Luke smiled broadly at the applause from the night crowd. Tossing his microphone into the other hand, he advanced into the dining floor of his restaurant and club, stopping in the middle and lifting a hand as if in proclamation.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen: you know him and love him—or hate him, depending on whether you wore the tuxedo or the dress at the chapel," he stopped to allow a brief ripple of laughter to cross the room, "I give you: George Sherman!"

The red-haired giant gave a small smile to the wave of applause that spread across the room before settling down onto his stool and adjusting the microphone.

"Thank you; the first song tonight…"

In one booth, a bespectacled youth ignored the singer's monologue.

"I'm just saying that…well, don't you guys think it's weird that this club popped out of nowhere?"

"Shut up, Aida; I want to hear this guy,"

Hikari Horaki—despite her reservations at being so close to liquor—had immediately volunteered for what Kensuke had referred to as a "visual-recon" of the Rising Star club and its evening singer. She hadn't been seeing Asuka as much as before Shinji died; there were no weekend shopping trips or video-game experiences; in the time she had known the redhead Asuka had never seemed so down. 

When the remnants of the Stooges and herself had arrived at the Katsuragi apartment, they were astonished to see Misato staring into space on the couch. It took a few shakes from Touji to get her to even acknowledge them. Asuka had shrugged at the first questions about her guardian's lethargy, and then snapped whenever the subject was brought up again. 

Hikari sipped from her water as she watched the song begin—a breath of relief had escaped her when she discovered the sign outside declaring the establishment's refusal to serve alcohol to people who could not even vote yet.

_The sky was falling and streaked with blood_

_I heard you calling me, then you disappeared into dust_

_Up the stairs, into the fire_

_Up the stairs, into the fire_

Asuka stirred her soda with her straw slowly, not really paying attention to anything.

"Hey, Asuka?"

"Hmmm?"

"Is something wrong? You've been pretty quiet tonight," said Hikari.

"Oh…it's nothing. Really…uh…"

"What? You can tell us. We're your friends."

"Yeah, sure," Touji belched between mouthfuls of complimentary pretzels, "To the end."

"Fine. But do _not tell anyone or else," she pointed to Hikari, "I will never speak to you again," then she pointed menacingly to the boys, "and I shall see to it personally that you two will never be able to enjoy the sight of panties again. Clear?"_

"Crystal," the boys said in unison.

_I need your kiss…but love and duty called you someplace higher_

_Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire._

_May your strength give us strength_

_May your faith give us faith_

_May your hope give us hope_

_May your love give us love_

_May your strength give us strength_

_May your faith give us faith_

_May your hope give us hope_

_May your love give us love_

Hikari, Kensuke, and Touji stared at the redhead as she finished her narrative.

Asuka stared back before uttering a testy: "Well?"

Recognizing the warning signs of a preventable disaster, Hikari tried to be diplomatic. "…Uh, that's a…uh…"

"Even when you're dreaming, you're a bitch; I can't believe it."

Asuka pursed her lips before plucking a piece of ice out of her drink and expertly flicking it down Kensuke's back. The four-eyed one immediately launched into a dance; onlookers commented on how his moves managed to go along with a basically non-dancing song. 

"Well…Asuka…it isn't unusual to see friends in dreams so soon after they pass away," Hikari said cautiously, as if she were speaking to a child, "after Mama died I kept dreaming of her for years afterwards."

"This isn't the same!" Asuka snapped in exasperation, "I mean…we were in this weird apartment with the painting and a bag of tea labeled 'snozberry' or something…"

"Like from 'Willy Wonka'?"

Asuka raised an eyebrow at Touji's statement, "Willy Wonka?"

"Yeah, you know: that old movie with the Oompa-loompas; The little orange dudes with green hair?"

The German girl shook her head and replied, "Never saw it,"

"You _never saw 'Willy Wonka'?_" Touji almost yelled.

"I was busy; training and all that…"

"My little sister's seen 'Willy Wonka'!

"Then there was the university…"

"My dad has seen 'Willy Wonka'!"

"Then the battles we've…"

"My _grandfather_ has seen 'Willy Wonka'!"

"Shut up!" Asuka snapped at her new fellow pilot. Touji meekly pulled back.

_You gave your love to see, in fields of red and autumn brown_

_You gave your love to me and lay your young body down_

_Up the stairs, into the fire_

_Up the stairs, into the fire_

_I need you near, but love and duty called someplace higher_

_Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire_

_May your strength give us strength_

_May your faith give us faith_

_May your hope give us hope_

_May your love give us love_

"Anyway, what I'm saying is…oh, hell, forget it,"

"No, Asuka; if you want to talk about…"

"_Nein_; drop it. Let's just listen,"

_It was dark, too dark to see, you held me in the light you gave_

_You lay your hand on me_

_Then walked into the darkness of your smoky grave_

_Up the stairs, into the fire_

_Up the stairs, into the fire_

_I need your kiss, but love and duty called you someplace higher_

_Somewhere up the stairs, into the fire_

_May your strength give us strength_

_May your faith give us faith_

_May your hope give us hope_

_May your love give us love…_

_May your love give us love._

The final guitar lick resurrected the applause. Asuka and Touji barely noticed that they stood and applauded a song which they weren't paying attention to, but which still echoed in their minds. Sherman produced a bottle of water and began drinking while Luke announced a new _karaoke night…in a separate chamber from the restaurant, which led to even greater applause._

"That _gaijin_ is pretty good," Kensuke said as he used his napkin in an effort to mop up the cold water on his back.

"Yeah," Touji agreed, "it's weird, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…I walk by here a few times each week and this place just…popped up. I mean, shouldn't there have been…"

Touji was silenced by the sudden appearance of the waitress. She gazed down at them with her one visible eye, the left half of her face being hidden by a white smiling mask with red lips and an exaggerated make-up job around the "eye". Her head was covered by a red hood that was part of a short but glamorous red dress.

The right eye stared at him suspiciously.

"Uh…a steak, please?"

"Something…is wrong,"

"That would be an understatement," grumbled Chairman Kiel to the monolith labeled 6, rubbing his temples before looking longingly at a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin that sat beside him. If he took them during the meeting, the others might hear the rattling of pills and the swallowing of liquid; it would be taken as a sign of weakness.

"We knew that Ikari had his own agenda, but his actions with the past two angels—especially the Thirteenth—defy all logic."

"The scenario concerning the Fifteenth must remain unchanged; it is the only way to insert our own Child into NERV."

"We should look to the Dead Sea Scrolls for our strategy in dealing with these insects; perhaps a longer examination can show us how to stay on the correct path."

"An interesting idea," Kiel agreed, "Do you have a specific section in mind?"

"We have had our constant attention fixed to our current times; perhaps we should take a look at the earlier sections, we may find something of use,"

"I second the motion; it couldn't hurt to continue our research of the Dead Sea Scrolls," said the monolith labeled 3.

"Very well; the motion is on the table,"

Seven voted for the motion, the rest disagreed.

"Very well then; motion approved. I will direct our researchers to concentrate on the early sections of the Scrolls.

"Let us all hope that we may find something useful."

People often think of Thor as a tall, proud man with long blond locks, with a winged helmet and a mighty hammer clutched in one hand like a scepter. As some imagine, he wears a long flowing cape and is noble and just in nature.

The Thor that was presently speaking to the Dream King deep in the latter's library was large enough. His muscles bulged out grotesquely, long veins trailing across his body as if there were snakes buried beneath his flesh. His legs—while also heavily muscled—looked almost comical beneath his massive bulk. Little Mjollnir was almost lost within the grip of his massive fingers, while his right hand—in an attempt to appear thoughtful—stroked a crimson beard on which the remains of the new King of the Aesir's feast lay entangled. His breathe stank of mead and seasoned pork and beef. 

He wore his usual wine and food stained brown-colored vest and codpiece, with boots made out of reindeer felt and a heavy leather belt that was bound with a large silver buckle. A purple cape with a thin gold chain hung around his neck, and fell to end just above his waist. The cape was clearly intended for a person of smaller stature, and only served to make the Thunder God look even more ridiculous. 

A long buried part of Dream wanted to chuckle at Thor, but the ivory-colored figure only lightly sipped from a silver goblet of wine and regarded the god's grand—and amateurish—posturing calmly.

"…and while _I_ certainly do not accuse you of being…uh, helping in Odin Glad-of-War's death, there _are some people back home who will have suspicions."_

 **"I see," Dream set down his goblet and leaned back in his chair with a rather bored expression, **"Be assured, Thor Lightning-smith, that Odin One-Eye's passing was peaceful and—to all witnesses—entirely voluntary; my servant that attended him did nothing to ensure Lord Odin's demise…although, admittedly, there was nothing done to prevent it, if it could be prevented at all by beings such as my dream-creatures,"****

"Yes," Thor rumbled, "the servant,"

The Thunder God settled his rump into a chair at the far end and peered at Daniel intently, as if trying to stare the Dreamweaver down. Thor suddenly drew himself up as best he could—so large were his muscles that they forced his head into a rather hunchbacked position—put a stern look on his bearded face and spoke in an official voice.

"I want to talk to this servant of yours."

One of Dream's eyebrows rose before he replied, **"What would be the purpose of that?"**

"Odin All-Father died very suddenly; I want to hear what this…whatever it is has to say about it," replied Thor, who began tapping the handle of Mjollnir against the massive onyx-inlaid table.

Dream leaned forward and placed a semi-wrapped hand against his forehead. The black shreds of midnight sky that served as his eyes were covered by his eyelids as he thought.

**"No,"**

"What?" Thor's voice was calm, but Dream knew that veins were beginning to bulge in the god's neck.

**"I do not think that would serve anyone's interest at this moment; while the palace staff serves my wishes I am also obligated to see to their general welfare. Tell me, Thor Goat-runner,"** Dream's eyes opened, and a star shone brightly, **"Does the Aesir truly believe that I will permit your misplaced lust for vengeance to be spent on one of my servants? That I will stand aside so that you can kill one of my _creations?"_**

Thor's eyes suddenly bulged out with anger, as veins popped up all over his reddening face. Many enemies had taken to flight because of this sight, but Dream of the Endless was beyond this Norse deity's _comprehension, to say nothing of power._

"How _dare _you, Dreamweaver…!"

**"Baseless accusations will not be heard in this realm," **Dream picked up his goblet and sipped as Thor slowly rose from his seat, **"The person in question is guiltless. My word of honor would be given on this truth."**

"_Truth_," Thor spat, "You have one of the Angel-slayers working for you! I heard it from my mother, Freya Golden-hair, and word has spread through the Pantheons; one of those thrice-damned mortals who ride those…those beasts of blasphemy is in _this castle!_

"The Aesir demand justice! We are ready to go to war over this, Dreamweaver!"

The drained goblet was set upon the table, and the milky hands were clasped together in the lap of the Dream King.

**"War is not something to be lightly considered, Lord Thor. Bloodshed is completely unnecessary; and besides," **Dream's eyes filled with a blast of light, **"You are not as…unconquerable as you were long centuries ago.**

**"My servant has extended over a thousand apologies, and feels great remorse and guilt over what happened. However, I believe this matter is without any guilt."**

During Dream's talk, Thor had suddenly sat down again, the veins leaving his face but the color remaining. When Daniel was finished, silence reigned throughout the section where they had met.

**"If there is nothing else, Lord Thor," **Dream murmured as he stood up, **"I am currently in the process of shaping a rather…unique dream. You are free to browse the Library if you wish; if you wish to leave, I will have something escort you out. I wish you well in your new function, Thor Storm-maker."**

"Yes, well," Thor grumbled as he stood his bizarrely shaped body up, "I…thank you for your…hospitality. I must return to Valhalla. Good day, Dreamweaver…"

Daniel nodded and vanished.

"Refusing an offer of tea is hardly going to alleviate your feelings of guilt, Shinji,"

The librarian's insistence pushed down the boy's still flimsy resistance, and he took the cup and saucer out of Lucian's hands.

Shinji had learned early-on that—as far as the governing of the Dreaming went—Lucian was considered number two among the Dream-creatures. If Daniel's word was law—in both a legal and universal sense—than Lucian's word was very strict regulation. In the little corners of the castle where Mervyn dragged him to "live a little", it was whispered that he was the second dream created and in fact was among the first beings in the universe to exist.

You wouldn't know it, looking at the man's office, that such an august person was present. Lucian's office was about as large as the Katsuragi living room. There were books, as expected, but they were very cramped. Against the right wall (from the door's position) was a large roll-back desk with a windowed-door book case towering from its top. The blotter was almost covered by a large, thick book, bordered by a pile of official looking papers and scrolls. A lonely looking black quill pen in a silver inkwell sat near the back of the desk. Lucian's chair was low-backed and wooden, with pads that looked to be frequently used. The wall across from the door was overflowing with more books and papers, not to mention an occasional attempt at decoration (Shinji could have sworn that he saw a small bust of a 17th Century gentleman gulp and tremble on his spot between _The Oxford English Dictionary and __A History of the Korean War, Volume II, 1955-1960). There were notes taped to the desk and bookshelves, written in very neat script and black ink. Shinji had leaned forward to examine one:_

_Things to be done before New Year's_

_Finish the sorting of the "F" fictional section. __Confront Ms. Granger (or Potter, whatever) on the matter of those loaned volumes. __Commence reconstruction of "Adult" section. __Collect the ten dollars owed by Mervyn from that poker game. __Learn to play the oboe. _

To the left, a pair of hinged windows was surrounded by books except for one corner which appeared to be filled with film-cans bearing labels like _Underwater by Alfred Hitchcock_ and _Star Wars: The Dark Sun_. A small rectangular table sat by the window, flanked by two simple wooden chairs. Lucian had swept the papers piled on the table into a battered black attaché-case that remained the same size though the former pilot could see that the case should have been fattened with papers by now.

The boy watched the bird-like man prepare another cup of tea. Shinji recognized the flavor as Pineberry, one of the many flavors that did not exist in the Waking. The box of tea-bags he had received from Lucian earlier held a great variety of non-existent flavors, from many sources that would be considered impossible on Earth. The cafeteria sported hundreds of meals that—according to his coworkers—were dreamed up by mortals.

The librarian abruptly clanged his tea cup and saucer onto the table and sat in the chair opposite Shinji.

"Now then," Lucian began after his first sip, "How have Huginn and Muninn settled in?"

"Uh…all right, I guess; I found this perch thing downstairs and set it up in my apartment. Mervyn gave me some dead rats for their food and they seemed happy,"

"Mmm," Lucian sipped his tea again, "From time to time they will take flight and go around the world. Upon their return, you will receive news from the Waking; be prepared for that, it can get strenuous."

A flash of light from outside flooded the room. A great crack of thunder followed as Shinji tried to blink the spots before his vision away.

"That would be Thor," Lucian sniffed, apparently unimpressed by the demonstration of the Thunder God's power, "I'll have to make an inspection later; I'd hazard he broke some things on his way out."

Shinji covered his face and sighed.

"Why did he do it?"

"Why did who do what?"

"Lord Dream; I thought Thor was going to kill him…"

Lucian made a strange noise into his teacup that sounded like an amused snort.

"_Our lord_, dear Shinji, is made of sterner stuff than Thor. He was here before that…_ape was a twinkle in the eye of a Nordic storyteller, and he'll be here long after Thor is gone. You needn't worry,"_

"But Thor was talking about war; why…?" 

"…didn't he just avoid the trouble and give you up? He's not like that. He's never been like that and never will be,"

Shinji frowned, "You've…uh, been here a long time, Lucian? Y-you know him? L-l-lord Dream, I-I mean?"

Lucian stared at Shinji, with owlish eyes that only helped to make his appearance even more birdlike. 

"I've known him all my life, Shinji," the librarian said finally, "My memory overflows with facts and figures about the Dreaming—and the Library in particular. I have been by his side as long as I can remember, even when he was…kept away."

Lucian's eyes briefly flashed with a storm of emotions: anger, hate, and shame, all flickering through those gray soul-windows like a candle-flame in its death-throes. 

"Without him," Lucian whispered, almost a defensive hiss, "everything here collapses into dust; dreams vanish, without warning. Even my books…waste away. Chaos takes over…I know because I stayed here, when everyone else vanished or left."

"He…was captured; how?"

Lucian snorted, "Some idiot mortal with more followers and ego than sense. I suppose he thought he was doing a service to mankind: he was trying to capture Death,"

Shinji almost choked on his tea, "_What?"_

"The fool was trying to imprison our lord's elder sister," Lucian answered in clipped tones; he glanced around his office before leaning toward the boy with a conspiratorial look, "I should tell you: Lord Dream himself said it was fortunate that he was snared instead of his sister. God knows what might have happened were _she_ prevented from carrying out her duties,"

"No one would die…" Shinji murmured thoughtfully, briefly recalling dozens of names that the world would be much happier not knowing.

"That's not the only…"

"_Attention! Attention! One-thirty! One-thirty! One-thirty in the afternoon of Friday! The Gallery of Unnatural Joy in the Southeastern Wing must be rotated! Picasso's __Orange__ Period to be put up!_"

Shinji jumped as Lucian looked up at a squawking coo-coo-clock perched over the door. 

"My, how time flies," Lucian mused and then glanced back over at the boy, "Sorry, but we'll have to continue this another time. I'll have to summon my assistants for this. I will see you later."

Shinji had already stood and was about to leave as Lucian said this. He paused, stuttered a hasty farewell, and left the librarian's office. He stopped beside a statue of a Neanderthal with a blunt rock and another pointier stone bearing the inscription "Oog: Greatest Writer of France, 10 million B.C." to get his bearings and turned down a hall/row that was kept darker than other parts of the library.

The former pilot did not stop to regard the painted ceiling above him as he walked down the passageway. He walked for what seemed to be a half-mile before he found the door…and the eyes of a pale, decapitated head seemed to grow even sadder as the boy below him left the Library of Dreams.

**_They know._**

**_How could they not? Perhaps it was a mistake to bring him to the wedding of that goddess and her mortal consort…Urd has always been the wilder of that_ particular version of the Three-in-One.__**

**_Ah, well. What is past is past. The Creator approved of the boy; the _****_Silver_********_City_****_ sends no beings of Divine Wrath to avenge its children. We have nothing to fear from there…_**

**_But still, what will others say, I wonder? And more important, what will they do_?__**

**_So much that these stories made Holy Writ treasured on mortal Earth—destroyed and despised, mocked and looted. They will blame the boy…_**

**_This is the Dreaming:  my kingdom; indeed myself. I will defend it and its denizens—the children borne by countless generations of humanity and myself—to the end. He will be protected by my helm._**

**_What else can I do? I did_ destroy and remake him myself…__**


	15. Chapter Fourteen

THE RAILWAYS END—CHAPTER FOURTEEN

_In which we examine the lost life of an old man_

_A page's uniform is taken out_

_The Committee acts_

_And we are reminded of man's cruelty._

Love is an art, and Desire—depending on its mood—considers itself to be a Dadaist. 

It lives in the Threshold—its body, in all its beauty.

Capillaries form long winding tunnels, leading to a heart like a cathedral, eyes full of _vitreous humor_, and the dark pathways of the brain. The eyes face the sky, arms stretched upwards as if in exultation—of what only Desire knows. The lips smile, as if greeting an old friend or a lover.

From a distance, the Threshold resembles a doll with its arms positioned upwards.

Wandering the vast maze of its body, empty of all life except itself, Desire's existence is a lonely one, devoid of the contact she commands in humanity.

Have you ever wanted something, whether it is the buxom redhead in the next office or the latest romance trashy novel?

Then you have heard the voice and felt the touch of Desire…

Kozo Fuyutsuki had no idea when he lost his humanity.

Perhaps it was an evolutionary thing—a slow erosion of his empathy as he moved forward in his career, beginning with turning a deaf ear toward the screams of small animals tormented by a colleague later dismissed for "abhorrent behavior," to saying nothing when the son of his favorite former student was abandoned in the street. He had experimented and lectured for many years without his conscience being troubled, content in his life, while feeling the common disappointment that everyone feels when they did not rise any further.

The Vice-Commander of NERV was walking slowly through the cages where the EVAs were stored. It was late and he was alone. The cameras were shut off at his order—something like this had to be done without anyone watching; there were enough whispers about the alleged mental instability of the NERV supreme command without anyone finding a video of him in silent conversation with a large purple giant.

His short strides stopped as he stepped into the Unit-01's cage. He gazed at the side of the massive head. Fuyutsuki then walked around so that he could face the Evangelion from the front, head-on.

The introduction of Yui Ikari and Gendo Rokubungi into his life was the most likely point when Fuyutsuki's existence had been twisted beyond recognition. She was a nice young lady, a brilliant scientist who had wandered into a project—and a plan—that concerned the forbidden, something that any worthwhile researcher salivates over. He was an oddity even then, a powerful mind trapped in the body of a thug that routinely sneered at humanity. If anyone had told Fuyutsuki that these two people would someday be married, he would have laughed in that person's face. The idea was ridiculous because Yui was…well, Yui; and Gendo was…quite frankly, Gendo. The woman was a delightful soul who never drank if she could avoid it and dazzled people with her warm personality while the man was a heavy drinker and smoker who had been involved in half a dozen bar fights by the time he met Yui.

And when Gendo was around Yui, deep down, the professor feared for her.

Rokubungi was emotionally stunted, and love was something unfamiliar to him. He did not know how to return the feeling properly or understand that it could be a very complex thing. The professor was certain that—hell, most of the staff was convinced—Yui would soon realize her mistake and move on. When she did so, how would Gendo react? Would he refuse to let go? Stalk her? Perhaps even kill her, so no one else could love her?

And then they wed. 

The truth about Second Impact was revealed to the old man. He was horrified, shocked to learn that he was ankle deep in a monstrous conspiracy; one that included Yui as a guiding light. He threatened to go to the government; to expose them. 

Gendo thought that it was _his_ words that convinced Fuyutsuki to stay silent, and cooperate. That was fine, since the Commander's reaction to the truth might be unpredictable: it was Yui that stopped him, who pleaded with her old teacher to go along with the plan. 

How she got involved with such a bloody endeavorwas one of the great mysteries flowing through his mind. Perhaps it was the cold logic necessary to a scientist's career that muddled her conscience. Perhaps Yui felt sufficiently detached from humanity that she could easily do things to hurt her fellow beings in the name of helping them. After all, a doctor causes pain when he gives a flu-vaccination to a child, but it is all for the best in the end.

Things changed when Shinji appeared. Up to then, Yui had been focused almost entirely on the project; when the baby arrived, she first took off weeks to take care of the boy and see him settled in. Then, as time passed, her office was plastered with pictures of the baby Ikari. Photos of the entire family were rare, as Gendo was putting in just as many hours as ever.

The Commander's adultery disappointed the professor, but it failed to surprise him. Gendo just seemed incapable of understanding that certain things were expected of him now that he had a wife. That Naoko Akagi was the subject of the affair was also not surprising. She was a cold woman who wanted power, but somehow…

Poor Ritsuko. The good doctor tried so hard to distance herself from her mother, but she was failing. Simply dyeing her hair wasn't going to change it; she still had the irrational feelings for Gendo that her mother possessed. The Akagi women were independent enough, by the standards he had grown up with; but sometimes Fuyutsuki almost expected to see a collar and leash on the scientist. It was…disturbing, to see how Gendo could command such affection when he seemed incapable of it. It seemed wrong, like taking a blind person to an early Charlie Chaplin film and watching them laugh. Wrong, all wrong.

And now, Shinji Ikari was dead.

He had tried to remain indifferent to Gendo's treatment of the child, buried himself in work and the details of the prophecies in an attempt to not see the boy's sad eyes, not to imagine the wails of an innocent, not to see Shinji's face—Yui's eyes and features—twisted in grief.

Dammit, the world was not supposed to work this way! Gendo had plenty of options, why was the only correct one the choice that caused such pain?

Kozo Fuyutsuki walked toward the other end of the catwalk, eyes glued to his path. Change was in the air; he was old enough to smell it; it was just like Uncle Teroshi had told him all those years ago, when young Kozo had innocently asked about the melted flesh on his face: "We were too stupid to realize what had been going on, until that fireball came."

NERV's existence—its power—relied on the fear of both its servants and the people outside of it. It was a mistake to bring the boy: he was a crack in the foundation. Few things are as powerful as hate and disgust, and the Commander had inspired a firestorm of repulsion. Gendo Ikari's fate was no longer the same; Kozo understood that, even if the Commander did not.

As Fuyutsuki left the EVA cage, he suddenly realized that he did not know what to fear the most.

On Shinji Ikari's third day in service to Dream of the Endless, he had been given a royal page uniform; a pure white jacket with gold braid and lining, black trousers with a gold stripe down each leg, black bowtie, excruciatingly polished black shoes, and white gloves. One of the strangest parts of the uniform was a bizarre emblem that was emblazoned in gold on the lapels and above the gold cuff lining: it looked like an insect head, with something resembling a spine extending from where he assumed the mouth would be.

The boy hadn't worn it very much; he had been summoned with it to one of Dream's audience chambers twice, to serve as an attendant during the Oneiromancer's conversation. Shinji made sure that the uniform was well kept, as he had decided that the Dream King's servant was supposed to appear respectable.

The same rules did not apply to Daniel, though. While dressed in a white oxford, t-shirt, and pants he had a long conversation with a teenager with spiky black hair and a small ponytail. He was even barefoot. 

Though he wore more formal clothing when he met a young man with a golden horn extending from his head, the Dream King wore the clothes of a teenager just as much as he wore the long robes of a true king.

Today, Dream wore a white kimono with gold phoenixes on the breast. The emerald now hung on a thick gold necklace—rather like the kind found on Egyptian royalty—and had taken on a smooth oval shape.

The now open-aired audience room had been perched at the top of a tower jutting over the castle (and a few clouds) from which the vastness of the Dreaming could be appreciated. Large marble columns wrapped with ivy emerging from plants with a rainbow of flowers planted around the exterior of the dome roof. The dome itself had a silver dove statue planted at the top. The exterior of the structure was painted with scenes from what appeared to be medieval war, only there were men and women floating over the battle, hurling gold lightning bolts at each other's side. 

Dream sat in a thick wicker chair with white cushions, his ankles crossed over his sandal wearing feet. Over a glass topped table he faced a girl around Shinji's human age with gold eyes and dark brown hair wrapped in a bun on the side of her head with a braid in red ribbon descending down past her neck. She wore a simple white kimono with a crimson sash. Her right ankle was delicately webbed with another red ribbon.

"I wonder if there is something you may tell me, Dream Lord," she said in the fashion of a teenage girl hitting her father up for a credit card.

**"And what would that be, Lady Miyu?"**

She smiled, "There is a boy in my music class…"

Dream held up a hand; he had an **"I-am-not-amused"** look on his face.

**"Those are your affairs, good lady; they are yours to manage and conclude as you will…although I believe that your subjects also have something to say about these matters, do they not?"**

The girl frowned and crossed her arms in a pout.

"I was refused a few weeks ago. It is so unpleasant to force humans to forget; so wasteful. It is much more beautiful to…drink…and give them…happiness."

She picked up the crystal goblet at her right hand and held it out to Shinji for a refill of the mysterious red liquid that he had served her.

Gloved hands clutched the decanter that contained the guest's drink and maneuvered its spout to her waiting goblet. When he had finished pouring, the girl quickly gripped his left forearm. Shinji looked at her porcelain hand and then glanced nervously to the emotionless Daniel. 

"What about this one?" she asked with a small smile, "He has all the marks of a tortured soul…"

A star burned brightly in Dream's left eye and he frowned.

**"He is beyond your power, Miyu; his blood will not quench your thirst. He is one of _mine_ now."**

Miyu stared at Dream for a moment, her hand still clutching Shinji's arm. Then, reluctantly, she withdrew her hand from the boy's person.

"My apologies, Lord Dream…"

There were no more incidents during the rest of the audience, and soon enough she vanished, answering the summons of a "Larva". He was following Daniel down a flight of stairs that hung freely out above a valley beneath the castle's perch.

"Where was she from? Miyu, I mean…"

Daniel continued a few more steps, finally stopping on a landing that overlooked a Germanic village. He clasped his hands behind his back and looked over his realm for a moment before answering.

**"She is from a ****Nippon**** distant from your own homeland. She has…a heavy responsibility."**

Shinji watched his lord turn in a swirl of white and descend down the stairs again toward his castle. Confusion kept him from immediately chasing the Dream King, but he quickly made his way after the immortal.

"A distant Japan? What does that mean?" the boy gasped out as he continued after the striding Daniel.

**"Simply what it is,"** Dream said, as if it were the most common thing in the world, **"A Nippon far away from the one you know; similar in many ways but completely different in others."**

Shinji was amazed.

"You mean there's another Tokyo-3?"

A sound echoed in the back of Shinji's mind. The boy knew, somehow, that it was a soft chuckle; Dream spoke as much by a mixture of thought and human comprehension as he did with a voice.

**"There is,"** Daniel replied, sparing the boy a glance over his shoulder, **"A great number in fact. Each unique in their own fashions."**

"And me?"

Dream paused and turned his regal face to the boy, studying his servant with two stars—a bright green in color—acting as pupils.

**"You…do exist in these lands,"** Dream said, with a reluctant undertone, **"In various forms. Some events you experienced have happened to your brother-selves, up to a point. Others have experienced much more…"**

Shinji was confused again. He dared to look into Dream's eyes, averting his own after a half-second.

"What do you mean…?"

**"It is not given for ones such as yourself to know what might or might not have been."**

"But…"

**"Enough,"** Dream said sharply, his right eye's star blazing rays out beyond the night-darkness of his socket, **"Return to your apartment, Shinji. There are some matters that require my attention…and besides,"** he continued softly, **"I believe there will be a guest waiting for you."**

The Lord of the Nightmare Lands smoothly waved his hand and sent a wide-eyed Shinji to his fate.

Two days of work had brought Kiel to this moment. The papers grasped in his hands—reports from the Committee's Research Department—had driven away most of the shadows that had suddenly gathered around the Human Instrumentality Project.

_One of the Committee members knocked out of the sky by pigeons; two of our British government agents murdered in their offices; ships with vital parts vanishing; scientists losing memory. Now, all these things can be made irrelevant._

In a dark room, eleven monoliths appeared.

"Gentlemen," Kiel began—amid everything else, SEELE was the ultimate man's club, "Our first order of business is to first thank Members Six and Three for their wise recommendation. I assume everyone has received a copy of the new translation?"

Everyone had, and the Chairman began to read.

"'In the southern lands of Ethiopia, there was born to the House of Ras-Need-Ma a boy, who was named Alosmo. He was strong in body and soul and dreams.

"In his fifteenth year, Alosmo lay down in his house and dreamed. In his dream he saw the face of his mother and father, who slept in the rooms above him, his brothers and sister, and his betrothed. His dream showed his family shouting at him, calling his name.'"

Kiel took a breath; here was the most powerful part.

"'And then Alosmo was in the presence of the one that his people called Kai'ckul, the Lord of Sleep. Kai'ckul, who was known as one beyond the gods of the people of Alosmo, placed his cloak around the boy and said unto him: 'Know that your heart is good and that mine weeps. Duty and responsibility to all the peoples of your earth command that your life be ended this night. Forgive me; my heart protests, but my honor has spoken.'

"And Kai'ckul reached into the dreaming Alosmo's body and took his heart and the life of Alosmo was no more. When the village awoke, they saw the body and there was great weeping for many days.'"

Kiel laid the document down and put his hands together. A true grin threatened to spread across his face; he could feel the goal of his life within his reach.

"This is—like the texts that we have already read and put into motion—a mere summary. Further research on the Dead Sea Scrolls indicates that this story is much more than a fable.

"According to the Scrolls, the boy Alosmo was in fact the subject of a bizarre fluctuation on the psychic plane. He did not merely see his family in his dreams: they were _transported_ into his sleeping world, unwillingly, by his condition. Also, there were signs that the phenomena was beginning to spread to other parts of the village, including Alosmo's friends and other relatives. The Dead Sea Scrolls describe this as an 'Annulet'; another appropriate word would be vortex, I believe. 

"The effects of this Annulet are impressive in both terms of power and rapidity. The Annulet basically invades other dreams and draws them in to form a large combined dream. If allowed to run unchecked, the Annulet will eventually draw in every dream on the planet."

"What does this have to do with us?" asked SEELE-10.

"A great deal, since our goal is Human Instrumentality," said Kiel. Not even the insolent question of the monolith labeled 10 could offset his good mood.

"Though we have all seen evidence of psychic phenomena such as telemetry, telekinesis, and telepathy—indeed we use some of these in the machines that we have built—what the Dead Sea Scrolls describe is incredible. During the period when a human being slumbers, electrical activities are at their lowest level. The mind is at rest, allowing excess information to be disposed of. 

"The Annulet is able to not only link with sleeping minds, but is able to gather them all into one plane of thought. It is no coincidence that the interpretation of dreams is considered an important part of psychiatric work, since our psyche is completely naked in our minds; after all," Kiel allowed a grim smile, "Who can spy on dreams?"

There was silence in the chamber for a moment as the rest of SEELE considered his words.

"Chairman, you do have excellent observations," SEELE-3 said, "Do you have a plan on how to turn this…Annulet to our advantage?"

"I do," Kiel replied, "And then we will no longer have any need for Ikari, his NERV or his Children."

A wave of approving murmurs swept across the chamber.

"The Annulet, my comrades, is an Instrumentality in of itself. It is different, exists on an intangible level, relies on one person, but it is Instrumentality nonetheless. Our biological technology has enabled us to tap into the human brain and use its power to our advantage. With an Annulet under our command, we can turn the focus of our machines on to his brain and harness the power. We will be able to manipulate humanity's minds into Instrumentality: first the mind, then the body."

There was silence in the chamber. It certainly was a different strategy, one with less apparent risks than trusting Gendo Ikari. But one question was on everyone's mind.

"Where can we find an Annulet?" 

SEELE-3 had spoken for the entire committee…except Chairman Kiel.

"It is interesting you should mention that. I have already taken positive steps in that direction.

"I recently reviewed the report of the Third Child's death…"

Major Misato Katsuragi had been sober for weeks and her driving had still not improved.

Doctor Ritsuko Akagi knew that her friend's skills at the wheel had always been erratic, and no amount of time away from beer would ever greatly affect that. But Misato used to speed around corners like she was piloting a fighter in a dogfight and race the turn of red lights.

Dr. Akagi was sent forward and than back by the stop of Misato's car. She looked up to see that the light had finally turned to red; if the Major had been her old self, she would have been merrily racing on her way by now. But today, when Ritsuko wasn't doing it, Asuka would lean in from the back seat to remind the Chief of Operations to drive over twenty-seven, to keep the peace in Tokyo-3's traffic.

_Did I do this to you, Misato?_

Ritsuko shook her head and stared forward. It wasn't her fault that the Major was being hounded by sorrow and guilt. Not her fault that ever since Shinji's death a dark cloud seemed to settle over NERV. It most certainly wasn't _her_ fault that Gendo hadn't slept with her since…

"We're here," Misato said tonelessly. 

Tokyo-3 cemetery consisted mostly of black tombstones, organized into rows, resembling a ghoulish army marching into formation. 

Today's synch test was a quiet affair, and afterwards Misato, Rei, Asuka, and Ritsuko had bundled into Misato's car to visit Shinji's grave. Touji was originally going to accompany the three women, but Ritsuko had replaced him as his sister was demanding to see him. Misato had agreed, but had still regarded the blonde coldly. Dr. Akagi did not return the look; she knew that she had failed to live up to Misato's standards for bearing grief over Shinji's death: tears; gloomy looks; arms around the Major's shoulders; fucking the boy's surrogate mother and then crying over the boy with her (that one was reserved for Kaji, judging from what she had heard); cursing the Commander and his uncaring nature; and visiting the grave at least once a week.

Ritsuko walked behind the other women; this was more a time for them than for her. She looked out over the vast cemetery. Thousands of human beings lay here. God alone knew how many families they had left a gap in.

Yet the graveyard was almost always empty.

Ritsuko's thoughts were interrupted by a shriek.

"_No! No, oh God, no! Nononono…_"

The blonde scientist turned and hurried toward the sound, which continued to wail in an almost animal, wounded manner.

Rei stood beside the screaming Misato, who had fallen to her hands and knees. The Major was trying desperately to escape the grasp of Asuka's arms. The redhead was holding Misato back, tears streaming down her cheeks. Rei was taking in large gulps of air, and her eyes were shining with salty water. Misato tore at grass, clumps of dirt flying behind her as she pulled at Asuka's embrace.

Ritsuko stepped forward and, to her credit, did not scream.

However, her eyes did widen and her teeth bit into her tongue, bringing an iron and coppery taste into her mouth.

Shinji's grave yawned open, as if it had been there forever.

His coffin was gone. 


	16. Chapter Fifteen

THE RAILWAY ENDS—CHAPTER FIFTEEN

**"Gold,"**

"Huh?"

**"Gold, Matthew; that shall be the color of her hair. Golden hair and emerald eyes; an excellent combination, do you not agree?"**

Matthew the raven looked at the dream that Daniel was shaping. The King of Dreams was holding a tuft of blond hair against the thing's head, stroking his chin in thought with his other hand.

"I suppose…so, uh, a woman today, huh?"

**"Oh yes, Matthew; dreams and nightmares are of all kinds, as you well know,"** Dream replied as he pushed the hair into the girl's head with his thin fingers. He fingered his glowing emerald before long golden locks grew out of her head and down to her waist before halting.

"Whatever," Matthew sighed, "You just seem to be putting a lot of work into this one."

**"It is a very special dream, Matthew," **Daniel replied as he produced an ivory comb and carefully went through the girl's hair, **"She will have a specific function in this realm."**

Matthew didn't ask what that was—years spent in the service of the Dream King had taught him that asking more questions often led to less satisfaction then he had at the beginning of the conversation. Besides, he figured that if the Endless wanted to keep things secret then they had a damn good reason.

From his perch on a small table where Dream had laid out various items for his work, Matthew could see that all the attention that the Dream King had put into the new whatever-the-hell-it-was showed in the almost lifelike detail.

Physically, Matthew guessed that the dream was around sixteen years of age. Daniel had given her all the developments that a human girl would have around that age, except for some of the more…unpleasant things Matthew remembered from his days as a human. Like all newborns, she had been nude as Dream molded her; of course, not all newborns stood on a beach beside a shadowy waterscape for days on end while their parents tried to decide how sharp her teeth should be. Now, she was dressed in a pretty ornamented dress that Dream had conjured up some time ago while considering the girl's style of clothing. He still had not decided, and had put it off while he attended to other details.

Matthew had never claimed to be an expert on sculpting, which was the closest thing he could relate Daniel's work to. He had seen the _David_ at some exhibit and later stared at what looked like three old car engines held together by goose-shit mounted on a mannequin's leg wearing a beaten-up high top at a function he was forced to attend as a lawyer. But the raven could notice many of the differences between something Dream slapped together in five minutes and another that he worried over for days; the eyes, aura, movements, and intelligence were all of a higher degree. Even the _fingernails_ on those who took more than an hour to create seemed better.

Daniel suddenly clapped his hands together to shake off whatever might have gotten onto his porcelain fingers. It was something in the manner of a worker pleased with the progress of his labors.

**"Let us go, Matthew,"** the Dreamweaver said, **"We shall continue on this tomorrow."**

"When you say 'we', you mean **'I—with my long fingers and opposable thumbs—shall continue on this tomorrow'**, don't you?"

Dream laughed, and Matthew alighted upon his shoulder as the Oneiromancer began walking into the Crystal Forest that bordered the Shores. He paused a few seconds into the forest and looked back, gazing at the dark waters, all sign of mirth gone.

"Something wrong, Danny?"

**"Troubling signs, Matthew; do you see?"**

The raven studied the water from his perch. It was rather calm that day, which was somewhat strange since the Big Scare—the one that Matthew heard was called "Second Bang" or something—had kept a storm of nightmare-stuff brewing somewhere around the dark sea, with waves slapping against the beach at several times per minute. Today, the surf lazily crept up the sand before withdrawing in a peaceful manner.

"Well, it's pretty quiet but…" Matthew stopped speaking as he realized that he was quoting half of a well known saying.

**"Indeed," **Dream's voice was a mere whisper in the back of Matthew's mind. He turned back into the forest and began walking with more strident steps, a frown on his statue-like face. Ducking branches and trees mechanically, Daniel finally stepped into a clearing. He put his thin fingers into the air and parted reality like a curtain, stepping through and emerging into a large chamber in the palace, where dozens of staircases crisscrossed leading into different parts of the building.

Striding purposefully down one staircase and turning onto another, Dream frowned thoughtfully, his usually starry eyes as dark and murky as a cloudy midnight sky.

**"I _know_ these signs, Matthew; the ripples of a small reality storm,"**

The raven looked at Daniel's face in surprise; he had heard some stories of a "reality storm" from a few travelers who were passing through the Dreaming. He knew they occurred during times of cosmic significance, the last one being…

"Was…was there a death?"

Dream looked at Matthew, a star coming to life in his right eye.

**"No; the death of one of my family would cause a greater storm than this. It is like…"** Daniel paused and bit his lower lip, a rather human habit he displayed every now and then under stress, **"…like comparing a spring shower to a typhoon, Matthew. However, the fact that this…reality storm, such as it is, exists at all is disturbing. I have seen it only once before."**

If Matthew had eyebrows, he would have raised them, "You have—where?"

Dream stopped at a corner landing; he approached the marble railing and looked down and then upwards as if assuring their privacy. He then held up a white hand, a signal for Matthew to perch upon it.

**"Long ago," **Dream said softly, **"In ****Judea****—the land you know as ****Israel****—a man was given back his life by the Scion of the Almighty,"**

Matthew blinked; it took a few moments for the pieces of the puzzle to fall in place.

He had had no idea that his eyes could still widen in astonishment, and his beak fell open.

"Oh my God…y-you mean…?"

**"Yes; it was a simple demonstration of divinity, one of many intended to teach His people. It created a reality storm—a small one, though larger than the one now brewing,"** Dream sounded wary as he said that, **"It was, after all, one simple man. One soul taken from my sister's embrace, never to return; but even so, one soul returning to the mortal world in such a way is a matter of certain significance."**

"So what's causing this one?"

The King of Dreams placed Matthew back on his shoulder before continuing his journey down another staircase.

**"I do not know; this storm's source may be either in the past or future. However," **Dream frowned again, **"To judge from its size and appearance, I would say it is close to our place in time."**

Walking out of the stair-tower, the two made their way through a hall lined with works that Leonardo da Vinci would have painted if he had lived another ten years.

**"I have a task for you, Matthew,"**

"Say the word, Danny,"

**"…Very well. You shall go to Tokyo-3 and look around the city as best you can. See if there is anything out of the ordinary,"**

"Uh…Danny, you know…"

**"…Besides what the mortals are doing in their military agency there. You shall know what I need to discover when you see it."**

"Fine," Matthew spread his wings and took off, flapping around Daniel's head, "Should I tell Shinji?"

**"Unnecessary," **Dream replied, a star blazing in his right eye as he spoke, **"Go now,"**

At Daniel's command, the raven soared past his shoulder and down the corridor, turning at a door and then through a window, fading into the distance on his way to the Waking.

"Of all the…"

"Um…"

"Can't believe I have to…"

"Asuka, please…"

The redhead snorted and adjusted her nun's habit while sending a withering glare toward Shinji, who was clad in the cassock of a Catholic Cardinal. They both stood on a walkway lining the interior of a large cathedral, looking down upon a congregation of strange, shadowy figures with only a small old woman with thick glasses resembling an actual human. The dreamer was glancing around fearfully at the crowd around her.

"What's with her?" Asuka asked, jerking her head towards the old lady.

Shinji narrowed his eyes in thought at the figure in question and shrugged, while still clasping his hands together in a priestly manner.

"She's in a nightmare, I guess; she looks scared enough."

"What kind of nightmare?" Asuka asked, leaning over the rail to see what was so scary.

Shinji shrugged and sighed, "I really don't know. The palace is where I spend most of my time; this place is pretty new to me."

The Cathedral that sat in the Grimm Mountains was a huge, gothic structure with thousands of gargoyles perched around the interior and exterior. A large dome topped by a golden winged figure sat where the building's four wings intersected. The whole thing was a breathtaking mixture of German, French, and Italian religious architecture.

Asuka turned and walked down a hallway lit by distant candles; she obviously expected Shinji to follow her. And he did.

Pulling out a pamphlet from his robes, Shinji attempted to fill the silence that threatened to dominate this night, "'The Cathedral's foundation was laid roughly around the time of the coronation of the first Christian Emperor. With the beginning of centuries of struggle between the Christian and Muslim worlds, the Cathedral grew out of the dreams of many Church leaders to finally establish their religion as the dominant faith in the world. Though the Crusades eventually failed to dislodge the Islamic grip on the Holy Lands, the Cathedral continues to expand with every century as events alter the dream of the Christian Faith.'"

The hall suddenly was lit up by the Dreaming's sun. The pathway now looked over what appeared to be a half completed abbey. Neatly built walls sat unfinished; beams rose and connected over a floor covered with stone bricks; sheets of rough cotton rustled with the wind; and scaffolds towered over cobwebbed strewn fire-pits.

A chilly wind came through the yawning gaps in the hall, causing the garments of the two teens to ripple.

"'In recent years, the erosion of faith has caused the Cathedral's construction to slow to a snail's pace. Entire construction zones have been abandoned as dwindling dreams have been concentrated on one addition at a time.'"

Shinji's rather gloomy quotation echoed through the abbey, disturbing a number of birds that suddenly fluttered about screeching in Attic Greek.

Unable to move forward, they looked out over the ghostly sight. The redhead looked at the boy.

"So that's it?"

Shinji blinked. He looked down at the pamphlet and was about to read from another section when Asuka snapped at him impatiently.

"So they just stopped building…they gave up?"

"Well," Shinji said uncomfortably, "People aren't b-believing anymore so why bother b-building?"

Asuka frowned and looked back out at the abandoned piles of hewn stone, layered with straw and dust.

"So? People don't believe and everything stops?"

"No…no…I don't think so anyway…"

Shinji looked down.

"What is it?"

"Huh?" Shinji looked up, appearing a little older, "Uh…I…"

Asuka gave him a look that could cut meat.

"Well…someone died here recently."

"_Died?_"

Shinji nodded.

Asuka was taken aback; Shinji had always taken the injury of others hard. She couldn't imagine what he was feeling about someone dying in front of himself.

"He…he s-said something l-like you…th-that no one believed anymore, that no one cared…

"Lord Dream talked to me about it. He said that Odin dying was natural…that he did what many others did when their time came."

"Shinji…" she had never seen a look on the boy's face like that; he seemed…so relaxed to describe his new master. He seemed to be pleased to receive any sort of attention from this "Lord Dream", even if it wasn't completely positive.

"Tell me more about this…Dream guy…"

Shinji did so, with relish.

Asuka saw all the subtle differences.

Whenever Shinji had spoken of his father, he would often fold into himself—sometimes actually physically doing that—and his voice would lose all attempts to sound alive, his eyes moving elsewhere, not daring to look anyone else in the eye while discussing his male parent. When he described Dream, he spoke glowingly, happily, like a little boy talking about a comic-book superhero.

Asuka listened carefully to the boy's descriptions of the mysterious being's gentleness, wisdom, and sheer power.

"…and he just snapped his fingers and her doll leaped up and began this crazy little dance. He didn't say anything, but I think he was pretty happy to see her like that…"

Shinji's banter struck a cord in Asuka; she waited a few minutes until she gave the question voice.

"Shinji; why are you dead?"

The boy stopped so abruptly for a moment Asuka thought he would fall over. A nervous look came over his face.

"Uh…what do you mean?"

"Shinji…you've been dead for weeks…I—we want to know _why_."

The brochure fell to the floor, and Shinji began fiddling with his cross with shaking fingers. He swallowed, and his eyes fell to the side.

"I…that is…it's complicated…" he finally stuttered.

"'Complicated'?" Asuka yanked off her habit, shaking her red hair after doing so, "Why?"

Shinji bit his lip and moved away from her, looking down intently at the cross he was maneuvering through his fingers.

"Well?"

Asuka's tone finally brought a weak, defensive response.

"I had to…I was a—"

The girl wasn't able to hear what else Shinji had to say as a high pitched voice emanating from her clock-radio took her away to see the ceiling of her room.

UN Special Base TUMBLEWEED was located in the Arizona desert, isolated from most of civilization save for a single road. Helicopters—black venomous things slung with gun pods, rocket launchers, and guided missiles—squatted on the desert floor at various locations around the base in groups of four beside tents that housed their pilots. Cameras, motion detectors, heat sensors, webs of laser sensors, and prowling dogs roaming freely within a fenced area surrounding the complex made the place near impenetrable; this fact was backed by two battalions of UN ground troops.

The base was in an octagon shape, and consisted of barracks, laboratories, offices, an airfield, a large cafeteria, a huge long building that resembled a hanger, and a small nuclear power plant. Satellite dishes were planted in two neat rows, enabling the facility to keep up with all developments in the world.

In Alpha Laboratory, the most restricted section of the base, was a large chamber. The entire room was based around a collection of tubes that sat on a circular platform over a hole in the center of the room. Walkways leading to the platform covered pipes that curled out of square gaps on the platform and were plugged into the base of the tubes. Beneath the tube platform, dozens of hanging cables led to a metal dome at the bottom of a deep well filled with tubes and wires. Within the dome, inserted three days previously, was a core taken from the MP Eva assembly building on the base.

Surrounding the tube platform was a ring of computer stations which handled the flow of information that followed the complicated operations carried out here. A ten foot wide gap leading to a pair of large, air-tight doors allowed waiting medical technicians to retrieve the subject of whatever experiment was being carried out that day.

The man who was known as SEELE-8 to his comrades looked up at the Plexiglas tubes in the middle of the large room, a quiet wonder still filling him despite years spent watching similar operations being carried out.

It was a special thing to bring a new life into the world, though SEELE-8—also known as Gregory Hayes, head of a massive conglomerate that employed over two million people—was never a father. He had tried, but none of his four wives had been able to bear children. Hayes wasn't sure if it was luck; Sharon—_was she the one he had sunk into the South Pacific or was that Mary_—had taken pills to guard against pregnancy, he knew for sure.

Perhaps it was for the best; he had seen enough families with dead or deformed children—courtesy of his leaked chemicals—to decide that dealing with babies would be too much of a hassle.

In one tube was the body of Shinji Ikari, his skin still bearing the marks of the astonishingly intense autopsy that NERV's Commander had ordered. Three entire spools of white thread had reportedly been used to sew up the parts that were sliced open: the chest, interior of the arms, top of the legs, even the boy's skull had been pried open and the brain actually split to search for some sign of stroke or tumor.

Though the decay was light, the body was clearly unsuitable to house a soul. Thus the second tube contained a clone-body, one that resembled the boy in every way except for the lack of any body hair—the genetics were in the body for it to grow, but there hadn't been enough time to adequately cultivate the clone for anything to appear. And like all clones that had come so far since the science was started, young Ikari's clone was pale and had blood red eyes, now only half-open. The mouth was in the shape of a dreamy smile.

"Mr. Hayes?"

The old man turned to look at the middle-aged, brown-haired scientist holding a clipboard by his side.

"We're ready to begin, at your order, sir."

_How quickly these people allowed themselves to be destroyed when you wave enough money in their faces,_ Hayes thought. His contempt for humanity had slowly increased over the years, especially after Second Impact.

"Very well; start immediately."

"…rather it was due to the efforts of your elders that we have come so far…"

Asuka Langley Sohryu leaned back in her chair and glanced out the window as the teacher began his lecture. She briefly considered playing Hangman with Hikari and the Stooges before remembering that her best friend was visiting an elderly relative who was entering her final days and without the Class Rep around Asuka could barely stand the two boys, who had managed to rebuild a form of buoyancy despite Shinji's death.

She had truly dreaded telling them about the grave robbing. Things were so different from Germany here that she had wondered if the desecration of a person's grave would spark some kind of posse. The Tokyo-3 Police had looked very grim about it before they were chased away by Section-2 agents—Gendo Ikari was quick to establish NERV's authority over the matter—and everyone who came up to Asuka asking for more information walked away with a shaken look on their face. Even the usually expressionless Section-2 agents were walking around with expressions of outrage.

In the end, the boys had taken the news very well, she thought; well, at least Touji had only bruised his fist after punching through a wall.

Rei had been bustled off by Gendo when he arrived at the cemetery with Section-2 agents in tow. Whatever he had tried to do didn't seem to help, as she was still upset and even a little angry when Asuka next saw her at headquarters.

Misato's reaction was the most surprising; when the redhead had released her, the major had turned on Ritsuko and shrieked out an accusation that the scientist had a hand in the grave robbing. It was all anyone could do to keep Misato from actually trying to torture the alleged knowledge of the body's whereabouts from the astonished Akagi. Kaji had to be called in to escort her home.

Asuka sighed and looked out at a bird perched down on a fence by the track; her feelings toward Kaji had changed dramatically since she had come to Japan. His reunion with Misato (and apparently Dr. Akagi) demonstrated again that her affections were not returned—and unwanted.

Perhaps…perhaps she was trying too hard; Asuka wanted very badly to appear mature, so much that doing so drained her emotional and mental strength. After years of trying, so far she hadn't made a dent in what other people saw. Letting go might be a relief…

It was then that Asuka noticed that the bird she was looking at was somewhat larger than most of the birds she had seen in Japan. She squinted in thought as the feathered creature snapped its head around in the manner that birds do. The German girl's eyes widened as she suddenly recognized the bird: it was a raven.

As if it knew she was watching it, the raven cocked its head toward her, gazing in her direction for a few moments before taking flight.

Matthew Cable, former Attorney-at-Law and present Raven of Dream of the Endless, flapped away from the school and took a course toward one of the large metal entrances to the Geofront he had sighted hours before on his first trip around the city. As a car drove in, Matthew dove into the tunnel that the guarded doors had revealed upon their opening.

The raven had never questioned how he could fly right past people without them seeing him; he figured it either had something to do with his being a dream or people were so absorbed in their own lives that they didn't notice him—or perhaps a combination of both.

Matthew flew past a blonde woman in a lab coat, quickly turning down another passageway and followed some strange instinct through the bowels of NERV as he reviewed what he knew.

First, something big had happened; something very serious, at the cemetery. The dark-suited thugs hanging around the school earlier in the day were shaking their heads in wonderment at it. Matthew had flown over the cemetery, seeing that the area was taped off and being guarded by some more dark-suited thugs. He perched on a nearby tombstone, doing his best to look like a dumb-as-shit crow or something while looking at the words on the grave marker the thugs were guarding.

His heart sank and a chill went down his spine as he saw whose grave had been desecrated. Bad experiences with the black arts in his former lifetime mixed with his present job to create any number of possibilities in his imagination, most of them gruesome enough to make a Nazi scientist vomit.

Now he came to a pair of heavy doors…which were closed. Probably locked.

No problem, though it always made him uncomfortable. He shut his eyes and aimed his beak for the crack between the doors. Matthew's body passed through the doors, as if they were only air.

The raven opened his eyes and found himself in a vast office, devoid of any decoration save two archaic design on the floor and ceiling. Before a massive window overlooking what the Waking humans called the Geofront were a rather simple desk and chair. A flat-screened computer sat at the seat's right hand. An old man stood before the seated person.

Matthew landed—still unseen—on the floor, watching them both.

"Any news?"

The old man shook his head, "None. Police have interviewed the custodian and his staff; they spoke to people who live nearby. Nothing; no one saw or heard anything."

"How is that possible?" the bearded man said, his glasses flashing in the light as he looked up at the old man.

"Our guess is that they used ordinary shovels and a team of agents chosen for their burliness. They probably carried the coffin to a truck on the pavement and disguised it there. Then—somehow—they took it out of Tokyo-3."

The man at the desk sat silently for a moment. He leaned forward and crossed his hands in a manner Matthew found sinister before speaking.

"Have they checked the flight manifests over the past two days? Perhaps there is something we can use in the records."

"The thought occurred to me," the elder man said with a weary voice, "Section-2 is on it as we speak.

"However," he crossed his arms with a sigh, "I doubt we'll find anything. This—bizarre as it is—was a black operation. Ikari, you and I both know who is responsible for it."

"It makes no _sense_," Ikari growled, his brow furrowing, "why would the old men do such a thing? What could they gain?"

"I don't want to think about it," the old man replied, "whatever they're up to, it can hardly be any worse than the atrocities we commit every day."

Ikari did not speak. He looked at the other occupant of the office and silently dismissed him with a wave. His subordinate bowed and turned, briskly walking for the doors.

The commander waited a few moments after the doors closed before he opened a drawer and pulled out a bottle and a small, scratched glass. He poured a clear liquid into the glass and quickly drank it before slamming the glass down and leaning back, staring at the top of his desk.

"Wrong," he muttered, "all wrong…nothing is as it should be…"

Unseen, Matthew spread his wings and flew past Gendo into the glass, into the air, into the Dreaming.

A scream erupted out of a dark corner of Dream's Library.

Shinji winced as another seagull dove for the heroine's head. It was all so terrifyingly real, much more of a horror film than the movie in the Waking. He scratched his arm uncomfortably, shifted a little in his stuffed chair, and looked at his companions.

Mervyn leaned forward on a mop, chewing on a cigar, with his little bat-minions hanging off his head. In front of him, sitting on the ground with legs crossed and his chin cupped in his hands, was a boy with messy blonde hair that covered his eyes, a blue sweater vest, and a baseball cap. Lucian sat in a baroque armchair, his bony fingers clasped before him with his elbows propped up on the arms. They were all gathered around a white screen and a rattling film projector in a clear corner of the Film Section.

"The birds…" Shinji said nervously, Lucian's gaze turned toward him, "they look so…real…"

"Of course they do," Lucian said in a dignified manner, "every story in the Waking pales in comparison to their editions here in the library. The inspiration comes from here, after all."

Mervyn took a deep drag on his cigar, and smoke poured out of his eye and nose holes. He exhaled in a sort of sigh, and took out a pocket watch.

"Aw, hell, Daniel wanted me to set up those new tapestries in the Hall of Warriors. I gotta go…oh, hey, Shinji?"

The boy looked up.

"Where's that cart you checked out? I'm gonna need it,"

"Oh…uh, I left it in the Pendulum Garden with Amon. Go on downstairs, I'll get it,"

"Thanks, kid," Mervyn said, and placed his cigar back in his mouth as he turned to head for the exit.

Shinji stood and began to follow the scarecrow…

A Sea of Dirac—even a relatively small one—was a difficult thing to handle. SEELE's technology could create them, but their generation had to be immediately followed by a series of negative and positive charges precisely timed and patterned to stabilize the field, preventing the Sea from collapsing or expanding uncontrollably.

A stable Sea of Dirac was necessary before the ZEBEDEE system could be engaged. "Field is stable at eighty-five percent of generator's capability. First pulse, negative charge."

The operation's supervisor, Dr. Rueben Houser, turned to Hayes, who was sitting to his right at the main console.

"This is high priority, as you instructed sir; normally, seventy-five percent is acceptable since we get a fifty to sixty-two percent success rate at that level, but with this one we'll begin at about ninety percent, which will give us a higher rate of possible success."

"How much higher?"

"Oh, about seventy-eight," the doctor replied, "but I can't promise anything. Most of the subjects we've worked with haven't been deceased as long as this one. And there have been mixed results with insertion into clone bodies."

Hayes grunted in understanding. He wasn't really worried; Houser was one of his best scientists. Besides, it had been agreed that the process would be attempted at least five times until they would give up.

"Dr. Houser? Field is now at ninety percent and steady. ZEBEDEE system ready to engage."

The technician looked at Houser, Houser looked at Hayes.

The old man nodded, and the authorization code was typed in and confirmed.

Unseen within the sphere above the tubes, crackling blue colored energy whipped and snapped around the Sea of Dirac. After about five minutes, a bolt hit one point, and then another went to the same place. Soon, a steady stream of energy developed there, a web of power that crackled and hissed as ZEBEDEE focused its blasphemous technology on the soul it had detected.

"ZEBEDEE reports subject found!"

An iron stake smashed into Shinji's spine and he screamed, his eyes bulging out. He stumbled forward, a hand flailed out and caught the projector, smashing it to the ground, bouncing a little as Shinji's body hit the floor. The projection hit a face contorted sharply with pain, the image of crows on the attack against blue eyes intermittently closed tightly or open, brimming with tears.

"AAAAAAHHHH! AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"

Lucian had leaped over his chair and was on his knees by the teenager. He had to shout to be heard over Shinji's screams.

_"Nod!__ Get Lord Dream! He's in the throne room!"_

The shocked little boy nodded and ran for the exit. Lucian turned his attention fully to Shinji.

"Shinji…Shinji, can you hear me? Can you understand me?"

_"Yes! Yes…oh, God! It hurts!"_

The boy was in a fetal position, curling in tightly with his arms hugging his torso.

Lucian looked up at Mervyn and spoke, "Let's at least get him off the floor; we can't do anything else until our lord gets here,"

The scarecrow bent down at Shinji's feet and Lucian put his hands under the boy, who was reduced to sobbing moans. They began to lift…

Shinji's body slid through their fingers, the sensation reminiscent of dragging one's digits through sand at a beach. He impacted on the ground—thankfully they only had him about seven inches up—and grains of sand suddenly spread out from where his body met the floor. Lucian picked up a golden grain and held it up close to his glasses. His eyes flickered over to Mervyn's face, the expression of which was such that it could no longer hold the cigar in his mouth.

They both spoke at the same time.

"Oh, shit."

"Oh, my."

Dream of the Endless sat on his throne in a darkened room, the only light coming from the tall stained glass windows behind him. He was completely in shadow, though the emerald around his neck gave a low light that highlighted the lower parts of his face and the chest visible through his robe.

"Danny? You there?"

Dream lifted his head and stars blazed in both his eyes.

**"Hello, Matthew,"** said the Dreamweaver, and he lifted an ivory white hand for the raven to alight upon, **"Do you have a report for me?"**

Matthew landed and flapped his wings once as a nervous gesture.

"Listen, Danny; there's a lot of shit up there and they just keep tossing it through a fan,"

Dream frowned, and more stars became visible in the night sky that made up his eyes. Matthew was obviously very agitated.

**"Then speak, Matthew,"**

The raven told everything he had seen to Daniel, and when he was finished, the Oneiromancer's eyes had darkened and seemed to spread across his face as he looked down.

**"This is disturbing news, Matthew; mortals have any number of reasons to disinter bodies—only a few of which are good."**

"That's what I was thinking; but the kid's father isn't involved, that much I can guess,"

**"It was unlikely he would," **Dream lifted his head to gaze out over his throne room, **"His is an existence of matter and formula."**

"So, what now?"

**"Now?**** I see no…"**

The doors burst open, sending Matthew into the air in surprise; though he was almost as startled, Dream was more restrained in his emotions. A small figure huffed his way into the throne room toward where Dream sat.

The night sky returned to Dream's eyes as he stood.

**"Nod?"** Daniel asked in an authoritative voice, **"What is the reason behind this…?"**

_"Lucian-Mervyn-Shinji-and-I-were-in-the-library-and-we-were-watching-a-movie-and-Shinji-fell-down-and-screamed-and-Lucian-sent-me-up-here-and-you-gotta-help-please-please-Lord-Dream!"_

Hayes looked at his watch and sighed.

"How long does it usually take?"

Dr. Houser looked up from the data on his screen, "It varies from case to case. But this is looking good. We should have him here within fifteen minutes."

Shinji's screams had drawn the attention of a large portion of the palace staff. Mervyn was doing crowd control while Lucian tended to Shinji, albeit his efforts were limited to trying to hold the young man's hand, which was feeling frightfully similar to bunched up sand. He tried to limit the boy's movement and his own when it connected with the boy; there was more of the mysterious sand appearing on the floor, and Shinji was looking thinner, taking on the appearance of a corpse.

There was a shift in the air that could barely be felt; reality shuddered to reveal Dream of the Endless in regal white robes, with Matthew orbiting his head. The Prince of Stories brought his gaze upon the Librarian and the former pilot, barraged by shouted, frightened questions; a fear of the kind not felt since the Kindly Ones' visit had the staff in its grip. Dream then looked over his shoulder at the faces (or other appendages) staring at him in expectation.

**"Enough. Carry on with your duties."**

The dreams still stared at him.

The stars in his eyes vanished, leaving only two emerald points of light,** "…_Now._" **Dream ordered coldly.

As his subjects stampeded for the doors, Daniel moved gracefully to Shinji's side and kneeled, his face impassive.

"He's in great pain, sire," Lucian explained, "And he appears to be dissolving, slowly; I've only seen it once before, when Lord Morpheus…"

**"I know, Lucian,"**

The Librarian looked down, a flash of sorrow briefly going through his eyes.

**"Shinji?"** Dream asked the boy, **"Can you understand me?"**

The young man gave a raspy cough and inhaled shakily; he had screamed so loudly and so long that his voice had given out under the strain. He managed a shaky reply before curling up, leaving a trail of sand from his body's former position.

**"He is capable of comprehension,"** Dream stated, **"A good sign,"**

Matthew landed and inspected the boy's face, "_A good sign?_ The kid looks like shit,"

**"Matthew…"** the Prince of Stories looked at the raven coolly; the bird closed his beak and flapped to his king's shoulder, **"This requires a remedy of different origins."**

Dream drew himself to his full height and looked over at Mervyn.

**"See to his comfort as best as you can. Let no one else into the Library; seal the doors if you have to. This matter is to be kept within a very tight circle, do you understand?"**

"Yessir, Boss, sir," Mervyn uttered, shakily lighting a cigar that shared his mouth with another. It takes a lot to unnerve a scarecrow, but it can be done.

**"I will take note of your performance…Lucian," **

The Librarian looked up from beside Shinji.

**"In my private study, there is a small chest of silver and wood; bring it down here."**

"As you wish, my lord," Lucian replied.

In Dream's eye, star—acting as a pupil—moved to regard Matthew on his left shoulder.

**"We must make a short journey, Matthew,"**

"You want me to come along? Really?"

**"What was it you said so long ago, little friend?" **a smirk appeared on Daniel's white face,** "**'You're gonna need someone around to offer advice, bail you out when you're in trouble, all that.'**"**

Matthew gave a short cry of laughter as he and Dream vanished.

When the intercom came to life, announcing an unexpected change in the lunch menu, the old teacher had paused, swaying slightly, and then launched into his Second Impact lecture again, apparently having lost his place. Asuka rolled her eyes, and sat back with a sigh, feeling a nap coming on. She glanced over at Rei, who was staring off somewhere outside, and then looked back at the head of the classroom.

The droning of their aged teacher seemed to be weighed down with even more dullness now, and soon the writing on the little-used chalkboard behind the old man became blurry. Asuka blinked a few times, and the writing returned to normal for a few seconds before she felt her eyelids drooping again. Recalling a previous event in which she had suffered a rather severe bruise on her forehead after losing consciousness at her desk, she crossed her arms and laid her head down to rest her eyes…

It only seemed like a minute before she felt eyes upon her. The teacher's voice was gone, replaced by a silence that seemed to come right out of a horror film. Cautiously, she raised her head, ready to face a frowning sensei and students following the universal law that says all children stare at the subject of their teacher's ire.

The class stared forward, still and silent. The old man sat with his hands clasped before him, looking at the group of teenagers through his thick glasses.

Something like a ghost stood behind the old teacher, a mop of messy white hair covering his eyes; he wore a white button-down shirt that was opened down to his navel with white slacks. Standing out against all the snow-colored surroundings was a small emerald hanging from a leather strap around his neck. Perched on his shoulder was a large black bird, a raven.

Asuka was surprised, to say the least. She glanced around quickly, expecting to see her classmates stand up or at least start whispering to each other. But there were only the glazed, bored expressions of a common school day.

The ghostly figure casually approached her, actually brushing up against one girl in front of Asuka, with absolutely no reaction from the student. Finally, he stood over the red-haired German and lifted his head to reveal two eyes as black as night.

**"A good day to you, Asuka Langley Sohryu,"** said a voice that echoed out of the back of her mind.

Asuka blinked and looked quickly around, looking for confirmation that she was not due for a visit to a padded room.

**"Do not be concerned," **the figure said in a rather bored fashion, **"They can neither see nor hear us."**

She narrowed her eyes, "I know you…"

**"Yes, you do."**

"The night that Shinji died…" Asuka's eyes widened, "You were there…_mein__ gott_, you're Dream, aren't you?"

"Give the little girl a big cigar," the raven suddenly uttered.

**"I have a million names," **Dream said, giving a harsh look at the bird, **"Dream of the Endless, however, is always first among them."**

Asuka stood up slowly, looking carefully at her classmates, who showed no reaction to her movement.

"What do you want?"

**"You are needed in the Dreaming; Shinji…needs your help very badly,"**

"Shinji? What happened to him?"

**"All will be explained if you agree to come with me," **Dream replied soothingly, **"I am capable of dealing with this difficulty, but the matter will go more smoothly with your assistance."**

Asuka looked down and bit her lip. After a moment she looked back up at the Oneiromancer's face.

"What do you want me to do?"

Dream of the Endless held up his left hand, with the index and middle finger pressed against the thumb. He flicked them toward her eyes, and a small sprinkle of golden sand flew from his fingers…

Lucian stood beside Shinji, clutching the chest he had been sent to fetch and looking down worriedly at the boy. He heard a footstep, looked up, and saw that his master had returned with a young red-headed girl. Matthew launched off of the Prince of Stories' shoulder and flapped over to Shinji's side; the girl followed the bird's movement.

"Shinji!" she ran over to the boy's side and got down on her knees, looking him over. The boy was still on his side, his face in a tight grimace. He opened one eye, but otherwise made little movement.

**"Lucian, you have it?"**

"Er, yes, my lord," said the librarian, turning his attention back to the King of Dreams and presenting the chest, "My lord, may I…?"

**"She is a friend, Lucian," **Dream replied, pulling a small silver key out of the air and inserting it into the small lock, **"Her presence here will expedite matters…ah, yes…"**

Dream had opened the chest, reached in with long white fingers, and carefully removed a sky-blue crystal the size of a baseball from within the chest. Inside the crystal was a blue fire that bloomed brightly and then almost faded into an ember before flaring up again, pulsing over and over like the beating of a human heart.

Daniel had turned his back on the girl and Shinji, clutching the crystal in his right hand hand while clasping his emerald lightly with the other. He said nothing, but his emerald began to glow even more brilliantly, with smoke-like tendrils of power radiating from within. His lips tugged downwards in a frown showing his concentration, meditating on the crystal in his hand before nodding slightly.

**"I must leave again, Lucian," **Dream finally said, turning back to his waiting servant and delicately replacing the crystal in the chest.

"_What?_"

Startled, Lucian snapped his head around in a bird-like manner to see that the girl had stood up, the strange objects in her hair giving an even more demonic look to her angry glare.

"Where the fuck do you think you're going? You have to help him! You can't just leave!" she hissed dangerously, not unlike an unusually hostile cobra, "You have to help him!"

The librarian didn't know whether to be amused by the girl's behavior or fear for her; no one had yet spoken to Daniel like that since he had taken his office, but his predecessor didn't take insolence like that very well.

**"The source of these troubles is not here, child," **Dream replied calmly, **"It is in the Waking, the mortal plane. I must go there to put an end to this foolishness. However, there is something to be done before I go…"**

Daniel crouched by Shinji, beckoning the girl to do the same. Giving him a suspicious look, the redhead joined him at Shinji's side. To Lucian's surprise, Dream lifted the emerald and its strap from his neck. He then picked up Shinji's limp hand—the boy's body did not slip through his fingers as it did through those of the servants—and placed the emerald in the boy's palm.

**"Your hand, Asuka Sohryu,"**

Asuka wordlessly lifted her hand, which the Dream King took and pressed against Shinji's hand, which automatically grasped hers. He then took the hanging strap and wrapped it loosely around their gripping fingers. Holding the combined hands with both of his, he looked into Asuka's ocean-blue eyes with the two dark skies that were his own.

**"Keep your hand with his, child," Dream said quietly, not quite an order but a command nonetheless, "The Dream Stone will alleviate the pain through direct distraction,"**

"Distraction? What are you…"

Dream released, and a green light found its way through the cracks and holes in the two teenager's fingers. A fluid emerald cloud of light poured out from the hands, flowing around the two figures, creating something not unlike an aurora around Asuka and Shinji.

Lucian wove his fingers together into a nervous fist as he watched the emerald luminescence engulf the teenagers; a white hand landed on his arm and turned him to the Prince of Stories.

"My lord," Lucian began, "Do you know what is happening?"

**"Arrogant fools, Lucian," **Dream replied coldly, **"Arrogant little mortals who are trying to take _my _servant from _my castle_, in the center of the Dreaming."**

Dream turned, walked a few yards away from Lucian, and then pivoted to return to the librarian. As he did so, his casual outfit was changed to a white outfit outlined with chaotic gold designs and a cloak attached to his clothing by two emerald fastenings. Flames woven into the cloak rose and fell as if an inferno had been tailored into the Dream King's clothing. From his sash he pulled out a single gauntlet and pulled it onto his right hand. From the darkness of his cloak, he drew his Helm and placed it on his head. The bizarre thing, crafted from the bones of a goddess who once challenged Dream of the Endless for his kingdom, gave him a fearsome appearance.

**_And they must pay the price._**

_Between the idea and the reality…_

It wasn't a luxurious train nor was it intolerable. It resembled, above all else, a rather clean subway-cabin, complete with abandoned newspapers and wrinkled advertisements beside the doors and above the windows. Blue cushions made up the seats and a thin dark blue carpet covered the floor.

Asuka opened her eyes and raised her head. In front of her was Shinji, his face buried in his hands. He sat quietly, rocking gently with the train's movement; his clothes were rumpled and dirty, and his hands were speckled with red stains. After a moment he lowered his hands and looked at Asuka with tired, haggard eyes.

The train rumbled through a dark tunnel, and when it came out, there was another man, holding on to a ceiling handgrip. He towered over them both, casting a shadow over the teenagers.

His skin was a milky white, contrasting sharply with his shaggy, raven black hair and dark clothing. The man gazed at them with eyes full of the midnight sky, out of a lined and careworn face.

For a moment, the teenagers stared at the mysterious stranger, and he back at them.

Shinji suddenly spoke, a brittle action that seemed to originate from a throat stripped of flesh and replaced with sandpaper.

"I know you…"

_Between the motion and the act…_

"Sir? It looks like we have company,"

Second Lieutenant Thomas Rockwell looked up from his map and turned to the sergeant behind him.

"What are you talking about, Pete?"

The sergeant gestured with his flashlight toward the security perimeter and Rockwell followed the beam. Lieutenant Rockwell raised his eyebrows when the light fell on something tall, white, and moving toward the mined and fenced off security perimeter.

Rockwell was pretty new to the base, but his commander had told him that from time to time either a wandering vagrant or a snooping conspiracy freak found their way into the restricted area. They all met a rather sad end, and it looked like it was time for Rockwell's turn to make one. He motioned for his troops to follow him and the desert floor was lit by dozens of flashlight beams as the soldiers walked towards the fence, maneuvering their sub-machine guns into a firing position as they moved.

"All right, Casper," Rockwell called out, "This here's government property. You'd best just move along."

The white figure just kept moving forward, a loose garment rippling in a breeze that had just begun moving through the area.

"_Didn't you hear me, buddy?_" the lieutenant yelled, "_Don't come any closer or we'll fire!_"

Rockwell shined his flashlight in the direction of the figure's head, and his mouth dropped open at the sight of an insect-like helmet with what looked like a spine sticking out of it.

"What the hell?" he pulled out his walkie-talkie, "Castle, this is Red Wolf in Zone-Seven; we got some sort of cult freak here or something."

Rockwell was perfectly capable of handling this himself, but if this was a cult member heading his way then there might be other crazies out there or back wherever the hell this guy came from, where he might be missed and lead to even more freaks trying to bring attention to the base.

"Red Wolf, this is Castle, our heat sensors aren't showing anything out there but you guys,"

"Castle, I'm looking right at him! He's…"

The figure had stopped and produced a small bag. He loosened a small cord holding its opening closed and held it out on an outstretched arm, pouring what looked like sand out of the small opening.

"…he's dumping sand out…a lot of it…"

The sand that fell to the desert floor began to swirl like a small tornado. The bizarre phenomena began to expand and grow; where once it was about the size of a basketball, it was now as large as a small bus in a matter of seconds. The wind had now picked up and was pulling at the men's uniforms, blasting sand into their eyes. Rockwell fished out a pair of goggles the troops kept in case of a windstorm and began shouting into the walkie-talkie.

"_Angel! We got a fucking monster out here!_"

"Red Wolf, we are not detecting _anything_ out there, what the hell is…" the device then crackled and hissed before dying completely. Rockwell shook it, screamed at it for a few seconds, and then threw it in the dirt.

"_Fall back!_" Rockwell shouted into the night and the gathering storm, "_Everybody fall back!_" He seized his submachine gun and took aim at the figure in white, still visible through the whipping storm of dust and the fence. He fired a long burst, snapping some wires in the fence, which proved to be the only thing he was able to hit. The tornado grew to a roaring thing moving steadily toward Rockwell and his fleeing platoon. Fence posts were torn out of the ground, sending metal wires whipping through the air. Sand pelted Rockwell and his men, the impact of the particles feeling ten times their size with every hit.

It felt like a boulder glanced off Rockwell's helmet and he fell to the ground, covering his nose and mouth while curling up into a fetal position. Through the swirling dust, he saw the white figure advance, his clothes rippling in the wind but otherwise he was completely unaffected as he moved towards Rockwell's body…

_Falls__ the shadow…_

_ For Thine is the Kingdom_

"I know you," Shinji said again.

**"And yet I do not know you…strange…"**

The man leaned forward, and though he had no visible pupils, the two teenagers somehow knew he was examining them with all the detached interest of a coroner plying his trade.

**"Strange,"** he repeated, mostly to himself, **"You come from far away, do you not? From another place on another world in another time,"**

Blackness engulfed the group as they entered another tunnel.

Asuka and Shinji stood on a white balcony overlooking a sea of stars. There was a man and a woman there, in an amorous embrace.

The man was a green color and glowing brightly, his hair seemed to burn like a flame. The woman's skin was blue, and she had white hair.

A shadow fell over the two teenagers, and they turned as one to see the tall pale man, staring at the two lovers quietly, without the slightest hint of emotion. He turned his back and walked back into the palace from which the balcony stretched.

"I…I think he saw us."

Shinji and Asuka knew without turning that the other man had spoken.

"Why should that scare you? You are a sun." the woman replied.

"I am a sun. But he is Dream. They say Death is kinder than he is."

"What should we do?"

"I don't know."

"Don't leave me."

"I never shall."

Asuka and Shinji were compelled, pulled really, to follow the black-garbed figure down winding stairs and out into a magnificent garden. He paused to speak to a fat, nude woman sitting beside a red, burning man and then continued his walk down another set of steps and finally approached a strange person like Asuka had never seen before, a being who seemed to be both man and woman.

**"Killalla of the Glow is with Sto-Oa,"** the man in black said in a calm cold voice.

_"Yes,"_ said the strange woman-man.

**"They were kissing." **

_"They were,"_ it replied, laughter in his voice, _"They've gone far beyond that now. His hot fingers are already invading her soft curves and moist crevices—"_

**"Enough!" **the man snapped, his voice like a short clap of thunder, **"You find this funny?"**

"_Actually, yes,_" it said, with a toothy grin.

**"I see. Then we are not friends, you and I, Sibling. Do not interfere further in my affairs."**

He turned and walked off, still appearing calm and collected despite what transpired. Asuka and Shinji followed him as he approached two other flaming figures, one tall and female looking, colored an elegant blue; the other was short, gangly looking, and was a brilliant gold.

**"Mizar?"**

"Yes, sire," replied the blue flame-being.

**"I have outstayed my welcome, and I shall be leaving now."**

"The woman you brought with you…?"

**"Will find her own way home. I imagine that Sto-Oa will transport her; they are going to the same place, after all."**

The dark man turned to the smaller, golden boy-child and regarded him.

**"You.**** Sol. Did I hear you say you planned to have some of your planets inhabited?"**

With a nervous voice the being replied, "Well, I'd certainly like it. Obviously, it's up to the planets themselves. None of them have woken yet."

**"Yes. Their dreams are very lonely, and beautiful."**

"You know that? Oh. Of course you do. You know, sire, you are always welcome in my system."

**"I know, Sol. One day…"** and the man in black slowly faded into the air.

Then the palace faded and the sway of the train returned as they left the tunnel.

Before them stood the tall pale man again, grasping the same handgrip.

"Shinji?" Asuka asked warily. She hated not knowing what was going on, not being in control.

"Its Morpheus," the boy replied breathily to the girl, "You're Morpheus," he said to the pale figure.

**"That name is applicable," **Morpheus said dismissively, **"If it is to your liking, I shall be Morpheus,"**

"What are you doing here?" Shinji asked, apparently awestruck merely by the presence of this strange man in black.

**"I…am going home,"** was the answer, **"There is a great…disturbance there. I never should have left but I…it could not be avoided. Not without loss of honor."**

The last words seemed more to be directed at Morpheus himself than a piece of conversation. He looked tired, and his voice was lined with growing exhaustion.

"They…say you're dead," Shinji murmured, "But no one has told me how, or why,"

**"_Dead?_"** Morpheus asked in a tone so cold Asuka grew goose bumps. He sounded as if he believed that Shinji was attempting a joke…and the dark being did not even remotely resemble someone who enjoyed a good laugh.

But the brief flash of anger that had crossed his face vanished, to be replaced by sad contemplation.

**"Dead, you say? It is not impossible, nor unlikely, especially in this situation…"**

He paused and regarded the two teenagers before speaking again.

**"Forgive me, but your names are not known to me. Only those separated from the Dreaming are beyond my knowledge…and those persons are rare indeed."**

"I-I'm Shinji Ikari,"

"Asuka Langely Sohryu," the redhead uttered with a cautious undertone to her voice.

**"And so there are names to place with faces,"** Morpheus said good naturedly—as far as he could say anything good naturedly, anyway, **"But it explains nothing…and I suppose it matters not in the long term,"**

His last words seemed to echo in the blackness that fell upon them.

_Between the conception and the creation…_

Colonel William Long was leaning over the lieutenant's shoulder a little too closely for the younger man's taste, but Colonel Long had been chosen for his subservience to SEELE, not for such trivial things as popularity with the troops…or loyalty to them.

"The system's breaking down, sir; all the heat sensors are dead, the motion detectors are shutting down, and the laser webs are about to go," Lieutenant Sanchez reported.

"Dammit, I didn't ask for a fucking science report, I wanted you to _fix_ the damn thing!"

Long's snarl echoed through the octagonal command center, and made the tension almost visible like a fog. Already the staff's activities were reduced to a crawl at the sight of monitors either hissing with static or half-filled with darkness, an indication of sand piling up in the camera scopes outside. More and more monitors were turning blank or filled with static.

It didn't help that reports from other buildings and troops were practically shrieking into their ears. Shouts like "_My God, the walls are going_" or "_Who the hell are you?_" were becoming less frequent, but there was still a lot of noise from around the complex.

The lights flickered, and Colonel Long looked up while barking an order for somebody to check the generators. A corporal with a pistol ran out the door as the lights buzzed out, leaving the room bathed in an eerie light from the monitors and smaller emergency lights as the command center's backup generator kicked in.

Long reached over and picked up the direct line to the Alpha Laboratory, "This is Colonel Long, we have a situation…yes, I _know_ Mr. Hayes ordered that he not be disturbed but this is an emergency, the power is going under and weather conditions are at tornado Force-Five levels. Tell Hayes and the rest to make for the tunnels, I think that…"

The phone went dead. In the same second, the computers and monitors finally winked out and the lights went dark, one bulb exploding and raining glass on Long's head. The doors opened violently and banged against the walls, as if it were pinned there by the presence of the bizarre figure now calmly walking into the command center.

Long pulled out his Beretta and pointed it at the white-garbed foe that was now walking past him. His soldiers were all staring at his trembling gun and the man with the frightening head, too shocked to move.

"Stop right fucking there!" Long bellowed, his voice enhanced almost uncontrollably in fear. To his and everybody's surprise, the stranger stopped his progress and turned his grotesque head toward the colonel.

"You think you can just come here, pull this sorta shit? Who the fuck do you think you are?"

There was silence for a few seconds, then an icy voice seemed to crawl up the spines of the staff and echo through their minds.

**_I am Dream, William Foster Long, and my business is with your master._**

Long's eyes bulged. So, the reports were true; an Angel…

His finger pulled the trigger, then again and again. All of the bullets were on target, but it didn't seem to matter.

**_That is enough. _**

A white hand rose and pointed at the colonel. The gun began unraveling, strips of metal unfolding off the gun and the stock falling out, sending bullets flying through the air and orbiting around the reshaping gun, which by now had twisted itself into the shape of a flower, the bullets remolding themselves as petals and attaching themselves to the metal stem.

Long dropped the beautiful and bizarre thing, staring in horror as the figure raised another white hand, this one filled with what looked like dust or sand, and moved it quickly in a wide arc around his body…

_…and despite the dust and the growl of the powerful engine, the children crowd around his tank.__ They wave at him and smile, and he somehow smiles back, taking chocolate from within the huge vehicle and passing it down to the little ones._

_"I'm sorry for what I did," he says to them, "Can you forgive me?"_

_"Of course we can," they reply, "Now come and play with us. There are many mysteries in the jungle to see."_

_Between the emotion and the response…_

The huge chamber reminded Asuka of a cathedral she once visited in Germany. The pews had been removed for some maintenance work on the floors, and the sheer emptiness of the place had left a great impression on her.

It was a vast hall that she and Shinji stood in now. The room was lit mostly by flickering candles, mounted on large candelabra lining the chamber. At one end of the room was a large staircase; the other side led out onto a darkened balcony.

In the center of the room was a heptagonal table, lined with seven chairs…and seven occupants.

It was one of the strangest groups Asuka had ever seen. There was a relatively normal looking girl there, with pale skin and black hair; she looked to be only a few years older than Asuka.

But she and Morpheus seemed to be the only normal ones. A man wearing a dusty robe and a chain leading from his wrist to a book sat by the man-woman Asuka had seen earlier.

There was a squat, older looking woman who had placed the end of a hook mounted on her ring in her lip, tugging at it thoughtfully.

To Asuka's surprise, the freaky girl from the theme-park was at the table as well, dressed in torn peasant's clothing with her legs drawn up tight against her.

The final member of the group wasn't hard to miss; he was a huge red haired and bearded man, with a heavy sword buckled to his side. His huge hands were on the table, and he leaned toward it, biting his lip. It was obvious he had something on his mind.

"Who's he?" Shinji muttered questioningly, mostly to himself, gazing at the giant.

"How should I know?" Asuka replied waspishly; she despised being left in the dark, "I thought you knew these guys."

The boy shook his head and began pointing out the family members, "There's Destiny, Death, Despair, Desire, Delirium…nobody's ever told me about another brother,"

A deep, booming voice, colored with an Irish accent, cut off the conversation.

"I called this conclave for a very weighty reason, one that I have worried over for some time,"

The pale figures looked at him with a range of faces; detached interest, cold musing, nervous expectation, and apparent absolute disinterest.

"One of the responsibilities given to us," the giant said, "is the recognition of what is to be, the patterns and ripples of time and reality that begin within and without our realms and selves, and the understanding of the consequences that these patterns bring with them.

"Another of the responsibilities given us," he continued, "is to oversee the realization of these consequences, and the ripples they in turn create.

"Ever since the beginning, I—as you, my family—have fulfilled my functions as needed; and I have never and will never regret for a moment my labors of the past millennia."

The giant frowned and gave a weary sigh that echoed through the room.

"But I can no longer shoulder the responsibilities as I have. I cannot go on with my functions…and so, I have decided to quit my kingdom,"

The man-woman's eyes seemed to light up with an astonished, malicious glee. Death closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose. The squat woman called Despair brought her hand down so violently she tore off a huge chunk of her lip.

Twin points of light blazed in Morpheus's eyes and his hands clutched the arms of his chair.

**"Brother…this is most…_unusual_,"** he said in a tone of voice that revealed just how much he disliked "unusual" things happening.

"I know," the giant sighed, "But I feel it is necessary,"

**_"Necessary?"_** Despair said in a quiet but agitated voice, **_"Why is this so? Is there some fool challenging you like those arrogant rabble that made war on Dream?"_**

"No, my sister; nothing like that," he replied.

**_"Then why would you do such a thing, leaving the family?"_** she asked, her voice becoming a little frantic, **_"What has changed?"_**

"There is no such thing as a one-sided coin, my sister," he said kindly, producing a small golden disc out of seemingly nothing "And a coin given into the hands of our eldest brother, a coin sent up and rotates in the air, exists in chaos."

A thumb as thick as sausage flipped the coin into the air.

"The light it catches gives us a brief glimpse of what the side we wish for, what we want to happen," the coin whipped high up into the air and made its spinning descent, "But the light is also caught on the side we do not want to see. Each side is just as likely to face us as the other when the coin lands."

And land it did, with a sharp sound of metal hitting heavy wood. It made a few spins on the surface before lying flat, revealing a man's face on the side turned upwards.

"And I called 'tails'," the giant said with a rueful smile, which quickly faded, "There is a time coming when the coin shall be flipped again, when one side will face the light…but it is all too easy to forget that it has two sides, that turned away from our sight is another possibility. And a coin can always be flipped again."

Despair's dark little eyes flickered back between the coin and her huge brother. Out of all the beings there, she seemed to be the most upset. Dream was flustered; Death's eyes were still closed and there was a notable twitch beneath her left eye; Desire seemed pleased by what was going on, though her eyes had glazed over a little while the giant was talking; of Destiny little could be said, the shadow of his hood hid whatever reactions he may have made.

Delirium had taken a glass of wine and was curled into her chair like a grumpy cat, sipping at the glass and scowling as if her drink were sour. Her two differently-colored eyes betrayed nothing.

"There will come a time," the man said, "When my coin will be flipped and land, but there will be those who will wish to make the ones around them forget that the other side exists, and that it can be flipped again.

"Perhaps I am a coward. Perhaps I am being foolish. Perhaps I am many things…but I know, deep inside myself, that I cannot face that time when I must preside over the self-inflicted mutilation and death of a race. For the reality of change to be perverted in such a way…" he trailed off.

**"I do not understand what you are saying,"**Morpheus said to his huge brother, **"We have always performed our function despite the actions of mortals."**

"I know," he replied, "I did not think you would understand, my brother. You have always been the most conscientious of our family. I cannot imagine you taking the same paths I have walked, and that is to your credit."

This compliment did not deter his younger brother.

**"You cannot simply walk away from your responsibilities, from your duties! Have you even considered the repercussions of your intentions?"**

"I have, and that is what almost deterred me. But I have been away from my realm so many times and for so long that it can now care for itself. The stars will still burn; the lands will still shift, all without my intervention."

Despair pleaded, **_"Will you not reconsider?"_**

"No, I will not,"

The red-haired giant picked up his hat from his chair and held it in both hands, with a contemplative look on his face. He walked with great strides around the table and to the staircase. Before going up into the hidden chamber beyond, he paused. He turned back to his family, seemed to bite his lip, and then turned back, taking two stairs for every step he made.

There was silence for a moment in the room. Then a heavy voice came from the hooded Destiny.

_"Our brother has made his choice. We will go on despite it._

_"I thank you for your presence here. You may go."_

As soon as he had finished speaking, Destiny's family evaporated into nothing. For a moment the hooded man did not move.

He came closer to the table. For the first time, his left hand left his book, stretching towards the gold coin on the table. Picking it up, he held the coin flat in his palm.

With his fingers, he maneuvered the coin under his thumb. His thumb snapped upwards with a small metallic ring, sending the gold spinning into the air. When it landed, he immediately closed his fist around it. After a moment, he opened his fingers.

Shinji and Asuka came closer to him, peering at the coin.

The side that had come up showed two crossed swords. It was tails.

In a move that sent the two teenagers reeling back, Destiny turned violently, sending dust flying from his cloak. He flung the coin into a large vase by the wall, shattering the beautiful object and sending hundreds of shards scattering across the floor.

The pieces of the vase caught the light, reminding Shinji of the sun's rays reflecting off the surf of a sea from long ago.

And then he realized that the shards had become surf and waves, and the floor they were scattered across had become an ocean seen through the window of the train.

Asuka had pursed her lips thoughtfully, her eyes showing some calculation of an unknown nature. Shinji, however, had given his full attention to Morpheus.

"That portrait—that was him, wasn't it? Your brother?"

The tall figure raised his eyebrows until they vanished into his black locks.

**"You…speak of the one who left us, I'd hazard…"**

Shinji nodded, "It's an empty frame, nothing but blackness. Why didn't you have a—a symbol for him?"

**"The proper term is 'sigil', child," **Morpheus said tiredly, **"The Prodigal has no presence in my gallery because he has turned his back on the family. It was his wish for us to leave him be,"**

"What was his name?" Asuka suddenly asked.

**"Our kin have no names; he is called the Prodigal for his departure from our fold,"**

The shadows in the cab stretched from their corners as the train entered the tunnel.

_Falls__ the Shadow…_

_ Life is very long_

A young technician had just left the room for a bathroom break. He came rushing back in and hurried to Dr. Houser and Hayes at their console.

"Sir, we have a big problem."

"What is it, Warren?" Houser asked with a sigh. The operation was not going very well. The extraction process had suddenly stalled; he was currently running the calculations through the computer again.

"One of our security guys just told me that there's a huge sandstorm or tornado or something going on in the base _right now_ and…"

Only a restricted number of security troops were allowed in some of the rooms in Alpha Laboratory, so the guard in question must have been waiting outside the door to the chamber.

"Calm down, Warren," Houser replied, more to calm the suddenly tense Hayes than Warren, "This building is reinforced with enough concrete and steel to handle anything Mother Nature can throw against us here."

"But sir, he told me that contact with the other buildings and the security troops have been lost. Colonel Long hasn't been heard from in almost five minutes and it looks like all the lights around the complex have gone out."

"Is it an attack?" Hayes asked, his eyes widening.

"Impossible," Houser replied, "If the sensors had detected anything we would have heard it. Alpha Laboratory has top priority."

"But is…" Hayes stopped in mid-sentence as the light flickered. It was only for a moment, but the color drained from the billionaire's face as he looked at Houser. The doctor had already picked up a dedicated line to the security center.

_Between the desire and the spasm…_

The sun was warm. High above the beach, white birds of an unseen nature orbited lazily calling to each other in loud squawks. A green, spotted snake slithered across the sand, avoiding the waves lightly lapping the shore.

Shinji and Asuka stood, looking out upon the waves and the clear blue sky that met the sea. The boy's eyes widened and he pointed.

There, at the beach's edge, his black hair wet and matted against his head, his face unshaven and careworn, lay a man's severed head. Torn shreds of flesh dripped from his neck; from the darkness of the neck, a piece of white bone, the remnants of the lost connection to his body, could be seen glistening in the sunlight.

The snake slowly made its way to the head and raised itself. It opened its mouth and hissed, baring fangs dripping venom.

A black leather boot with silver buckles landed on the snake's back, grinding the reptile into the sand for a moment before the creature turned and began slithering back up the beach.The head's eyes had fluttered open to reveal sensitive, deep blue orbs. He looked up at the tall black figure of Morpheus, who stared down at the head emotionlessly.

**"Hello, Orpheus."**

He leaned down from his great height and picked up the head with both hands, holding it at the level of a man's height, and turning to walk down the beach.

**"You were unwise to seek favors of your aunt. But you have made your own errors. It was your own life.**

**"I have come to say goodbye. It seemed the proper thing to do."**

The two approached a wall of rock, where nature had formed a small shelf of stone large enough for Morpheus to lay Orpheus's head upon.

**"I have visited certain priests on this island, in their dreams. They will find you soon and will care for you.**

**"I will not see you again."**

The head spoke, in a raspy voice from a rocky throat, "But father…"

**"'Father'?"**Morpheus replied softly, with a brief tinge of hurt in his voice, **"Did you not say you were no longer my son?"**

"Please. Father," the head began again, "Help me die. Help me to die."

**"Your life is your own, Orpheus," **Morpheus explained coolly, **"Your death, likewise. Always and forever, your own. Farewell."**

The dark figure turned and began to walk away, then stopped. He turned his face back to the head on the rock. One of the saddest looks the two Children had ever seen crossed his face as he spoke.

**"We shall not meet again,"** and he returned to his path.

The voice of Orpheus rose again, half-choked by sobs, seeming to be carried by the air itself.

"Father! Come back! Please…" he choked, "Father…"

The black form of Morpheus simply kept walking slowly through the sand and foam, after a while vanishing into the air.

Asuka only blinked once and they were back in the train. She rubbed her eyes, which were aching after a forcible change from the bright Mediterranean sun to the artificial light rods of the car.

"You're just like him,"

The girl stopped at the whisper. She slowly lowered her hands and turned her eyes toward Shinji.

The boy stood before Morpheus, his face turned toward the ground, his fists clenched and trembling. His breathing was hard and shaky, strained by the weight of the emotions growing in his chest.

**"I beg your pardon?"** Morpheus asked, true confusion lining his words.

"You left him…all alone…a _head_…"

For a moment, the being's eyes widened. Then white eyelids sealed the two pools of night.

**"Orpheus…"** he murmured, his voice like a breeze moving through an old graveyard.

"All this time…people were…_why did you do it?_"

Morpheus turned from them and folded his arms, his tall body swaying with the train's movement.

**"Orpheus…my son made…a number of poor choices. He…he would not hear my words. There was nothing I could do for him,"**

"_YOU LEFT HIM!_" Shinji suddenly screamed at the back of the Dream Lord, tears falling off his face from the raising of his head, "_YOU ABANDONED YOUR OWN SON, IN THE STREE—ON THE BEACH! YOU LEFT HIM CRYING ON A FUCKING ROCK! YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN _HIM"

The only sound in the train was Shinji's heavy breathing. Morpheus was staring down at the floor, his shoulders tense and hunched up.

**"Perhaps you are right," **the being said, turning to regard the teenagers, **"Perhaps there is little separating myself from the one who gave you such pain."**

He sounded as if he were speaking from very far away. Not for the first time, he seemed very old and very tired, despite his youthful features.

**"Orpheus was my son. I did what I thought was best for him,"** he paused and shook his head, **"No. I did what I thought was best for the laws I have existed by for so long. And ultimately, I allowed the rules to dominate my feelings for my only son.**

**"A father should not have to choose between his duties and the welfare of his blood, but I did…and my son turned away from me and left, because I chose wrongly, because I chose the rules over my son, because I would not leave my palace to stand beside him and his petition. And finally, because I thought he did not understand, because I thought he had never listened to me."**

Morpheus closed his eyes and tilted his head upwards.

**"But it was I who did not understand. By then I was not young—if I ever was—and by then all my loves of the past had frustrated me and left me nothing but pain. I made the mistake all fathers are doomed to make—that their sons are no different from themselves. I believed Orpheus would overcome his pain; that he would move on.**

**"I could not understand then, but I see it now: he could no more move on from his love than I could from my duties. And so we both suffered those thousands of years."**

The King of Dreams opened his eyes and looked at Shinji sorrowfully.

**"I cannot see what gives you such pain and fear, young one. I do not know you, we have never met in dreams, and I wish we have so I had spoken to you before this.**

**"Yes, I left my son on an island, bodiless and without family beyond the priests I commissioned to watch over him. He had turned his back on me, scorned my counsel, and made foolish decisions. **

**"But Orpheus was my son…and no matter what he had done that angered me, in the end it was I who had done the greatest evil: I did not hear my child's call. I walked away. And there is nothing in my entire existence that I regret more."**

_Between the potency and the existence…_

Alarmed by the shouts of their comrade, the guards looked up, some even beginning to stand from their kneeling positions. As they did so, a white figure emerged from the swirling clouds, a single white hand outstretched with a small golden cyclone storming in his hand. With another panicked shout, the guards hit their knees again and brought their weapons up to fire.

A blast of wind erupted from the storm, so strong it hurled the men closest to it back down the hall, one of them hitting another soldier causing that man's rifle to fire a short stream of bullets. A wave of unconsciousness hit the men, leaving them all asleep as Dream of the Endless swept past, his attention completely focused on the laboratory ahead. The storm followed a hundred yards behind him, making Dream's cloak flap violently in the wind.

The Dreamweaver coldly strode up to the chamber's entrance, halting the storm behind him. The doors were snapped open by his presence and when he had entered they closed forcefully, more secure than any lock could make them.

The technicians within stared at him in astonishment, one dropping a coffee cup, sending brown liquid and shards scattering. An old man in an expensive suit slowly stood up, his mouth moving like that of a fish out of water. A man in a white coat beside him stood up as well, paling as he beheld the bizarre sight of Dream in his helm.

**_What do you think you are doing?_**

The cold voice could have been that of the Grim Reaper for the effect it had on the people in the chamber. The scientists began slowly putting more distance between themselves, Dream and SEELE-8, which was not very easy to do, but being intelligent people they found a way.

The old man had stopped flapping his mouth and had straightened up.

"I'm bringing this boy back; we don't need you anymore,"

**_Oh? _**Dream sounded amused, gazing around at the trembling humans **_Without_****_ me, what would you be? Without Dream, what would any of you be?_**

"What the hell are you talking about?" SEELE-8 was honestly confused, a feeling he shoved aside, "Bah, what does it matter; you, your kind, and your God are obsolete now. When this boy is ours, we will…"

**_You will have nothing because you WILL NOT HAVE THIS BOY!_**

Dream of the Endless turned and pointed at the Sea of Dirac generation tank. The metal skin disintegrated, sending a downpour of metal dust onto the tubes below. The Sea of Dirac floated near the ceiling for a moment before blasting apart, sending shockwaves and energy ripples roaring through the chamber. SEELE-8 and Dr. Houser was hurled against the console behind him while sparks exploded from the computers in front of him. He collapsed to the ground amongst new chaos, screams and shouts hitting him from every angle. Dr. Houser crawled over him and tried to hide under another desk.

Panels had been blasted open by the shockwave and now wires and cables were dangling from the walls and ceiling. Small fires had erupted in various places around the chamber. The tubes had been shattered, sending the LCL-nutrient mix spilling all over the floor and the bodies tumbling down next to a terrified woman.

Hayes opened a blood covered eye to see the strange, white figure now hovering over him.

**_Gregory Vincent Hayes; you have attempted to violate not only the laws of my realm but those of my sister's. Your foolishness has endangered many lives and the stability of the Dreaming._**

Dream reached out his hands, and a star seemed to blaze in one of the eyes of his helm.

**_It falls to me to pass judgment on you, and it is this: that you will know, now and forever, exactly who and what you are…and how LITTLE that means._**

****

_Between the essence and the descent…_

In the darkness of a cold, quiet desert night, one voice could be heard:

"Our Father, who art in Heaven; hallowed by thy name…"

_Falls__ the Shadow…_

_ For Thine is the Kingdom_

Reality rippled in the Library of Dreams, and the Prince of Stories appeared behind Lucian. The librarian turned and bowed to his lord, who slowly removed the helm from his head. The two teenagers were still hidden by a fog of glowing emerald light.

Without a word, Dream's helm vanished and he went over and reached through the light. His arms made a series of circular motions and he finally withdrew his hands, the fog fading as the Dreamstone left the joint grip of Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langely Sohryu.

For a moment, there was no movement, and then the redhead collapsed onto the unconscious Shinji's chest, apparently falling into a deep sleep (which is not impossible in the Dreaming). Dream waved a hand and the girl vanished. He nodded to Lucian and the tall bird-like man leaned down and picked up the boy, cradling him carefully and moving toward the doors.

The King of Dreams clasped his hands behind him, emerald hanging from between his fingers, and walked into the shadows of the book stacks, deep in thought …

_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_This is the way the world ends_

_Not with a bang but a whimper._


End file.
